WALTHAM,
Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–EarlySense, a market
leader in proactive patient care solutions, announced today post regulatory
approval clinical and interventional study results further confirming the
EarlySense contact-free patient monitoring systems high value as a risk
assessment tool for preventing pressure ulcers. The clinical study data is
published in the December 2011 issue of the Journal of Patient Safety. It can
also be accessed on line at: http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Abstract/2011/12000/Using_Continuous_Motion_Monitoring_Technology_to.3.aspx.
An overview of the pressure ulcer study data was presented in a poster abstract
at the 2011 ISQua conference in Hong Kong. The
EarlySense system is FDA cleared and has a CE mark for hospital, home and
clinic use.
The EarlySense contact-free patient monitoring system
automatically and continuously records and documents a patients cardiac,
respiratory and motion parameters using a compact sensor placed under the
patients mattress. The system alerts the nursing staff when there are
significant changes in a patients condition, if a patient has left or is in
the process of exiting the bed, or if a patient needs turning in order to avoid
pressure ulcers.
Nurses are informed of patient status changes, bed entries
and exits as well as turn requirements, via a wired or wireless communication
system, on the patients bed side monitor, at the nurses station, on their
handheld devices and on a large screen display mounted in a prominent spot on
the wall in the department.
The quoted clinical study was a non-interventional study
performed in two medical departments at two separate medical centers. The
movement of 116 patients enrolled in the study was recorded and retrospectively
analyzed.
“We found that the pressure ulcer risk score correlated
highly with the EarlySense measured motion rate. Based on this, we have
concluded that the EarlySense system has potential to serve as a risk
assessment tool to be used to prevent pressure ulcers,” said Eyal Zimlichman,
M.D., a lead researcher from the Center for Patient Safety Research and
Practice, Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard
Medical School
in Boston, MA.
The interventional study, conducted at a US hospital,
evaluated the implementation of the EarlySense contact-free patient monitoring
system in a 33-bed medical-surgical unit. Here, data from 666 patients in the
pre-implementation period were compared with data generated from the 993
patients in the post implementation period. The researchers found a reduction
of about 65% in incidence of pressure ulcers attributed to the use of the
technology. Of the 41 staff nurses who routinely worked on the floor with the
technology, 88% agreed that the turn alerts provided by the EarlySense system
helped nurses to reduce risk of pressure ulcers.
“Pressure ulcers are among the most frequent and costly
adverse events for hospitalized patients – costing the US health system more
than four billion dollars a year, but its been hard to identify good
strategies for preventing them. In this study, the EarlySense system was
effective for continuously monitoring and alerting the nurse when a patient is
at risk to develop pressure ulcers, which should help reduce their incidence.
This is all good news as hospitals continue their quest to improve the quality
of care and reduce costs,” said Dr. David Bates, Chief Quality Officer and
Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Brigham and Womens
Hospital, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Executive
Director of the Center of Patient Safety Research and Practice.
“EarlySense continues to set the standard for technologies
that help clinicians provide proactive care on hospital floors by monitoring,
communicating and facilitating the management of timely clinical interventions
– all without ever touching the patients. Our system has been repeatedly
reported by medical professionals to assist in their effort to save lives and
secure better clinical outcomes. Todays data pertaining to pressure ulcers is
another example of how the EarlySense system can make a valuable contribution
to patient safety and the hospitals bottom line,” said Avner Halperin, CEO of
EarlySense.
About EarlySense
EarlySense is bringing to market an innovative technology designed to advance
proactive patient care and enable better patient outcomes. The companys
flagship product is an automatic, continuous, contact-free, patient monitoring
system that monitors and documents a patients vital signs and movement. There
are no leads or cuffs to connect to the patient, who has complete freedom of
movement and is not burdened by any irritating attachments. The system is
currently installed at hospitals and rehabilitation centers in the USA and Europe.
It is also commercially available in Canada. EarlySense Inc. is headquartered
in Waltham, MA.
For additional information, please visit: www.earlysence.com
Posted by Sean Fenske, Editor-in-Chief, MDT