A team of Navy officers have designed an innovative and cost-effective solution that allows remote monitoring of patients in ICU, thereby considerably reducing the risk to healthcare staff looking after Covid-19.
This solution is being implemented on a trial basis at the Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), a designated Covid-19 hospital that caters to four districts.
With this facility, doctors can monitor all patients in an ICU at any point of time from any place with internet connectivity.
A central monitoring system is available in the country but public hospitals might the Rs 10-15 lakh expense a bit prohibitive.
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However, the same facility was locally made by naval officials within a budget of Rs 1 lakh, said K.S. Varapr-asad, director of Vizag Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS).
The Visakhapatnam naval dockyard has been manufacturing portable multi-feed oxygen manifold ventilators (MOM) to cater to oxygen supply for Covid-19 patients at VIMS.
After While handing over the portable MOM to the hospital, its director requested dockyard personnel to explore the feasibility of providing a solution for remote monitoring of the vital parameters of patients in ICU.
Visakhapatnam naval dockyard superintendent Sreekumar Nair said, “A core team comprising two officers and four workers of the dockyard, under the Eastern Naval Command, designed and implemented the solution within six days.
The audio-visual output of the bedside patient monitoring system was converted to HDMI output and multiplexed for all 48 beds in ICU through a digital video recorder and provided on a big display outside the ICUs.”
The facility includes monitoring all patients simultaneously or selecting as required, including zooming to one patient and an audio alarm, if any vitals are failing.
