Autoscore

Published May 10, 2022, 5:13 pm

In the Emergency Department at St. Olav's Hospital, new technology is needed to measure vital signs contactless, continuous and automatic. Heart rate, respiration, temperature, oxygen saturation in the blood, awareness and blood pressure. With innovative procurement, St. Olav's hospital will utilize new technology in the work of measuring vital parameters for increased patient safety. This project is named Autoscore.

VitalThings develops an advanced patient monitor for continuous and contact-free monitoring that will identify health deterioration at an early stage. DNV Imatis will handle alerts, communication and develop digital tools for the healtcare workers. The Autoscore – project is supported by Innovation Norway, and the procurement includes hospitals in Central Norway Health, the University Hospital in Northern Norway (UNN), and related partner municipalities.

Background

One of the challenges at the emergency department is that it is time-consuming to connect the current equipment with multiple cables to the patient. It is also challenging that patients have little mobility when connected to the instruments. Similarly, the wards need solutions that allow continuous monitoring of vulnerable patient groups. Current practice is based on interval-based supervision.

In addition, employees have to juggle between many different data sources to get the overall picture of the patients’ condition. In a stressful everyday life, this puts a high cognitive strain on many. Manual documentation and lack of interaction between systems can also affect the quality of patient care.

The opportunities that lie in existing and future technology, such as sensors, are many and yet to a small extent utilized in health care. New solutions for measuring vital parameters could potentially be of great importance for strengthened patient safety as well as more efficient patient treatment and use of staff resources.

From top left:
Hilde Sætertrø, Vendor development program NHO
Realf Ording Helgesen, Chief physician Malvik Municipality
Heidi Udnesseter, DNV Imatis
Bård Benum, VitalThings
Dag Ausen, DNV Imatis
Ole Kristian Forstrønen Thu, VitalThings
Geir-Erlend Myhre Johansen, ICT-coordinator St.Olavs hospital

From bottom left:
Lisa Græslie, Project Manager St.Olavs hospital
Trond Håkon, VitalThings
Lars Erik Laugsand, ass.clinic manager emergency department, St.Olavs hospital
Ragnhild Stavå, Section manager nursing, emergency department St.Olavs hospital

The VitalThings patient monitor enables contactless measurement of respiration and respiration. Through integration with the platform of DNV Imatis, patient data will be made available to healthcare workers in the emergency department in various applications, adapted to current user cases. Relevant patient information will be available to doctors and nurses on smartphones, at the same time as alerts and alarms will be received directly on mobile if there are changes in vital measurements or that the measurements are outside predetermined limit values.

Potential benefits

Streamline workflow

Visualization of measurements on the staff's mobile work surfaces, as well as notification directly to responsible personnel in the event of undesired development in measurement values, will be able to radically streamline workflows.

More time for patient-oriented work

The patient will experience that the solution "watches over" and provides security. Alerts and alarms go directly to responsible healthcare professionals with clear escalation loops, resulting in prompt follow-up when needed. At the same time, healthcare workers can use the time effectively to get a good overview in a hectic work environment.

Management support

Development of solid real-time KPIs that are made visible on dashboards will provide good management support through better situational awareness and overview.

Increased patient safety

Through the mobile solution, operations can be maintained during unforeseen events such as disasters, pandemics or the need to establish patient follow-up in temporary premises. Correspondingly, this will apply to bed posts in hospitals that have corridor patients.

Simplified interaction

Communication is supported digitally via smartphones and digital tablets, and simplifies the interaction between people and roles regardless of time and place.

* Innovation Partnership is a support scheme through Innovation Norway, where Norwegian municipalities and agencies join forces with the business community to jointly develop completely new solutions to current and future societal challenges.