Physiological signal monitoring in the waiting areas of an emergency room

Abstract

The Scalable Medical Alert and Response Technology (SMART) System was developed to monitor physiological signals from patients in the waiting areas of an emergency department. The system monitors the SpO2 (oxygenation level in the blood), ECG (electrical activity of the heart) and the location of multiple patients wirelessly. It was deployed at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, between June, 2006, and December, 2007. This paper describes the overall architecture, the sensors used, challenges in deploying this technology in a hospital and the degree of patient acceptance. Some sections of this article are based on an article first published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (J Am Med Inform Assn: 2008; 1) [7].