Wireless Temperature Sensing

Singapore, April 2006

Source: Innovation Magazine -- A joint publication by National University of Singapore and World Scientific Publishing http://www.innovationmagazine.com

"The last thing patients need when recuperating is to be awakened every few hours for their temperature to be taken. Now it is possible for healthcare personnel to measure their wards’ body condition non-intrusively with the invention of a smart sensory device.

Cadi Scientific Pte Ltd, a start-up by a group of engineering and science postgraduates from the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, has designed a wireless temperature monitoring and tracking system dubbed SmartSense 100 that automates measuring of temperature.Current monitoring devices are either bulky pieces of equipment or wireless devices that take electrocardiogram and/or blood oxygen level but not temperature. The Cadi’s disc-like ThermoSensor, in contrast, is small enough to be comfortably pasted on the body to measure the temperature, as well as monitor the patients’ movement and location around the clock. Each sensor continuously measures the patient’s temperature and transmits a unique code wirelessly to receiver nodes mounted on the ceiling for anywhere and anytime monitoring. The nodes are connected to a computer server housing patients’ temperature records. Nurses or clinicians can view data on mobile devices such as personal digital assistants as long as Wi-Fi connections are available. By purchasing an optional SMS modem system and SIM card, alerts can be sent via SMS to the mobile phone of the personnel in charge.

Cadi has filed a worldwide patent for the unique technology. The SmartSense 100 helps to enhance patient care and safety, while reducing nurses’ workload. The remote monitoring capability minimises unnecessary contact between patients and healthcare providers; if patients in a ward show signs of feverindicative of a contagious illness, clinicians can immediately effect a quarantine. The system allows contact tracing as it lists down all the people in the vicinity of a particular patient during his or her stay in the hospital.The Singapore General Hospital has successfully completed a pilot of the system and will use it on patients very soon. Tan Tock Seng Hospital also conducted a clinical trial on more than 400 patients in 2005. A major hospital in Thailand has purchased SmartSense 100 and is deploying it in its intensive-care-unit.The SmartSense infrastructure is able to cater for future devices used for location tracking of hospital equipment and wireless nurse call. It can be expanded to monitor other patient vital signs, ward environment, as well as patient medication storage condition.For its innovativeness, SmartSense 100 won The Enterprise Challenge Innovator Award given out by the Prime Minister’s Office in Singapore."