New device to replace expensive monitoring equipment
Doctors in London are testing a high-tech device that can replace expensive hospital monitoring equipment, ABC online has reported.
The device is a sticking plaster about the size of a playing card which contains a microchip powerful enough to perform the functions of hospital monitoring equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars.
The plaster is placed across the chest and conventional monitoring probes are attached. Keith Erry is leading the project developed at London’s Imperial College, which measures a person’s heart rate.
“We’re actually measuring the electrical signals given out by the heart, and from this there is a tiny computer inside this device which then deduces or calculates the heart rate,” he said.
“It also measures the number of breaths per minute.”
The device can be thrown away to minimise the chance of infection.
