BIRMINGHAM, UK – A project taking place at Birmingham Children’s Hospital using wireless technology to predict deterioration in seriously ill children has recruited its 1,000th patient.

The RAPID (Real-Time Adaptive & Predictive Indicator of Deterioration) project is using technology by data acquisition company Isansys Lifecare to collect real-time data on vital signs including heart rate, respiration rate and oxygen saturation levels. The data can be used to predict when a child’s condition may be deteriorating, providing an early warning system for doctors and nurses to act on.

The hospital is using the Patient Status Engine (PSE), a continuous monitoring platform alongside Isansys’ Lifetouch ‘smart bandage’ technology.

The project is among the first in the world and is on track to recruit more than 1,200 patients before May this year. (Hamilton Health Sciences, in Hamilton, Ont., has developed its own early warning system for adult patients.)

The program is a collaboration between Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Isansys Lifecare, McLaren Applied Technologies, Aston University and the University of Birmingham. It is being jointly funded by £1.8 million grant from the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, through the Health Innovation Challenge Fund.

The 1,000th patient is five-month-old Rayan Ali Adris from Smethwick, who is being treated by the hospital’s cardiac team for aortic stenosis, a condition that narrows the heart’s aortic valve.

His mother Neelam said: “I’m so pleased that Rayan-Ali was able to take part in the study. I think the wireless technology is great, I can pick him up more easily and he is constantly monitored.”

Dr. Heather Duncan, Birmingham Children’s Hospital intensive care consultant and lead of the RAPID project, said: “Recruiting the 1,000th patient is a really important milestone. We’d like to thank all of our children and families who have helped us since the launch. Their help is so important to the success of the project. Work is continuing to progress well as we enter the final phase of this three-year study that’s aiming to revolutionize the way we monitor patients to save lives in the future.”

The technology that the project is using enables continuous monitoring and analysis of large amounts of data in real-time, a contrast to the way vital signs are usually recorded every one to four hours onto paper charts.

Patients’ deterioration can be more accurately predicted using the technology and the project expects faster and more targeted responses that can save lives and shorten hospital stays.

Dr. Duncan continued: “This technology is truly transformational. It allows us to analyze many more patients’ data in real-time for the first time in the same way that various other high-risk industries have done for years.

“The ability to track and identify deterioration towards a cardiac arrest will give doctors the chance to save the patient’s life. I genuinely believe that this will change the way we care for patients in hospitals forever.”

Keith Errey, CEO of Oxford-based Isansys, said: “We are delighted that our Lifetouch “smart patches” and wireless patient monitoring platform have now been used to monitor more than 1,000 patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. We believe this is the first time that next generation wireless technology has been deployed to monitor children of all ages in hospital and in real-time.

“Our Patient Status Engine technology is not just enabling freedom from leads and cables, but is also providing continuous vital sign data for the development of new and powerful methods that will allow clinicians, nurses and families themselves, to provide even better care for these young and often vulnerable patients.”