The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first sensor to monitor heart rate, respiratory and movement monitors in a chair.
The FDA has cleared the Chair Sensor Solution from EarlySense, a company focused on contact-free patient monitoring, reports Fierce Medical Devices. It was evaluated at Coffee Regional Medical Centre in Georgia, US, where it aided care providers in the detection of early signs of patient deterioration and fall prevention.
The device is designed to be placed underneath a chair cushion and monitors the patient without any attachments from leads or cuffs. The company already markets a contact-free vital sign monitor for use with hospital beds, which was approved in January by the FDA.
"The biggest advantage of the chair sensor is that it monitors the patient when sitting on the chair and doesn't require any user contact," said SueLane Hughes, director Medical/OPO Unit at Coffee Regional Medical Centre. "We found it to be very useful in giving the clinical team information about their patients, no matter if they were in bed or sitting in the chair.
"The EarlySense System is allowing the medical staff to recognise potential adverse events prior to them becoming acute events that potentially put patients in jeopardy."