To bring Intensive Care Unit (ICU)-standard monitoring across general wards, Max Healthcare on Wednesday announced a partnership with US-based medical technology company Vios Medical to launch a continuous vital monitoring system built on a medical-grade Internet of Things (IoT) framework.

The technology provides continuous monitoring of vital signs such as oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate, electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood pressure in general wards, thereby enabling early detection and critical care facility even outside an ICU set-up.

The VIOS ward monitoring system comprises two connected sensors -- chest and finger -- which communicate wirelessly (via Bluetooth) with a bed-side tablet that maps all vital trends. These, along with alarms (in case of adverse episodes/ change in trends), can be remotely viewed by nursing staff and clinicians at nursing stations and smartphones via web links.

This ensures that hospital staff can continuously monitor even the patients who are in rooms and ensure better care, Max Healthcare said in a statement. "The psychosis/anxiety felt by patients under long term critical care has a strong impact on their recovery. With this technology solution, patients can experience 24x7 critical monitoring, even outside an ICU environment, helping them recover in the comfortable presence of loved ones," said Sandeep Budhiraja, Clinical Director at Max Healthcare.

The technology also aids clinicians in making more effective treatment plans by providing vital trends and patterns, the statement added. A successful pilot of the system, covering several specialties such as Cardiology, Pulmonology, Medicine and Neurology was conducted at Max Healthcare, Dehradun. The system, which has the potential to reduce up to 30 per cent critical care costs as compared to ICU charges, will be launched soon across all network hospitals under Max Healthcare, the statement added.