Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, on Friday said it has come up with a wireless technology for remote monitoring of patients' condition ferried in ambulances.

Christened 'AmbuSens', the technology has been developed in the SWAN Lab of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) of the Institute."AmbuSens is capable of wireless monitoring of various physiological parameters like ECG, heart rate, temperature and blood pressure. It can be fitted in an ambulance to ensure remote monitoring of patient condition by the doctors even before they reach the hospital," a statement from the institute said.The system preserves patient's data confidentiality while simultaneously using the analytic and computing power of cloud computing. 

The web interface of the AmbuSens system provides an easy-to-use graphical interface for doctors and paramedics alike with data visualisation tools such as real-time ECG graph rendering, d can be accessed from Internet-enabled laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
"There is no such technology at present that can help doctors at the hospital to continuously monitor the condition of the patient when the latter is on the move. This technology will be a boon for the referral patients who are transported from a hospital in the remote area to a city hospital," said Sudip Misra, a professor at the department of CSE, IIT Kharagpur, also the principal investigator for developing this system.Currently, in such situations apart from family members, a medical technician accompanies a critical patient in an ambulance, he said.

"But this technician has limited knowledge. Now with the doctors being able to monitor the patients on transit, they can suggest medical interventions to the technician. This can be lifesaving," said Misra.The embedded system of AmbuSens includes both hardware and software.The referred hospital and the referee hospital, as well as the ambulance, will have laptops or tablets with the internet connection.
The patient will be fitted with wireless body sensors, which will help doctors of both referred and referee hospitals to continuously monitor the health condition of the patients in real-time.The technology can be life saving for accident victims or cardiac patients who need to be transported to the hospital immediately, Misra said."We conducted successful field trials of the developed system at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar and BC Roy technological hospital (BCRTH), IIT Kharagpur," he added.