Department of Health

Less than a week after open heart surgery Lucas West was bounding around the playroom of Birmingham Children's Hospital with a huge smile. The hospital visit was one of many for the two-year-old who suffers from severe health problems that include a hypoplastic left heart -- or two left sides in his heart -- and no spleen. But this trip was slightly different for West, thanks to a new sensor and analytics device that is being trialled in the Hospital's Cardiac Unit by the Department of Health.

The technology is called "Rapid" and provides real-time heart rate, breathing rate and oxygen level monitoring using Formula 1 software from McLaren and sensors from Isansys Lifecare. Unlike traditional bulky vitals monitors that connect to the patient with lots of wires, this wireless device consists of a watch-like ankle strap and two sticky heart rate monitors, which connect to data analytics software. "It's been a great help. Lucas has been able to get out and go to the playroom and wander around It's made him a lot happier and made things a lot easier," Sarah Hunt, West's mum, told WIRED. "If he's getting distressed we can pick him up. Whereas before we'd have to make sure all of the wires were in the right place and make sure we didn't pull them off."


Department of Health

Rapid replaces an outdated system of manually monitoring vitals every one to four hours and plotting them on paper charts. It uses wireless sensors and data analytics -- originally developed by McLaren for Formula 1 car telemetry -- to provide real-time information about a patient's health.

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It's connected to an alarm system designed by mathematicians at Aston University that alerts doctors and nurses if a patient's baseline levels deteriorate.

Birmingham Children's Hospital has been trialling the device on its cardiovascular unit for a year. It's being tested as part of a three year, £1.8m study funded by the Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust. "These sorts of technologies have the potential to save the NHS many, many times over the cost of adoption," George Freeman, minister for Life Sciences, told WIRED. "It has allowed the hospital to deliver far more efficient healthcare, increase turnover, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs."


But the government needs to figure out how to raise the initial cost of implementation before such technologies can be distributed across the NHS. "I'm looking at a number of ways that we could remove those barriers and make it easier for GPs, hospitals and social care to adopt digital technologies which can and then will save the system many times what it costs," he said.

Department of Health

These measures are part of the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to make it easier for the NHS to invest in and fast track innovations that will ultimately save money. "This technology removes the need for staff to be frequently, physically checking vital signs and recording them on a bedside chart. So it removes cost while also improving patient care and outcomes. I would expect to see this quickly adopted across the country in high dependency units," Freeman explained. "I would like to think that within two or three years we would see this sort of technology across the NHS."


Freeman is the first UK minister for Life Sciences, appointed at a time when the NHS is facing its worst financial crisis in a generation. But Freeman, who is currently assessing 360 new technologies that could be used by the NHS, feels innovation could help save money. "Ultimately it saves money rather than costs, and the challenge is to work out the initial cost of adoption and then the payback," he said, adding that the best of the technology currently being trialled would be rolled out across test beds in the New Year. "That's why we've launched the test bed program -- so innovations like this can be tested in frontline healthcare, and give us a basis for measuring what the savings of technologies like this are, so we can then fast track the most effective across the NHS."

The Birmingham Children's Hospital test bed is pleased with Rapid, and said it offered faster, more accurate information, which could help improve patient care, especially for those who are unable to express how they're feeling. "For the first time it allows us to analyse patients' data in real-time in the same way that various other high-risk industries have done for years," said Heather Duncan, Birmingham Children's Hospital intensive care consultant. "The ability to track and identify deterioration towards a cardiac arrest will give doctors earlier warning signs and the chance to save lives."

Updated 13/11/15, 13:50: This article originally stated that the wireless and sensor device is called Rapid. It has been updated to clarify that Rapid is a system that uses technology from McLaren Applied Technologies and Isansys Lifecare.