Technology innovation award for OBS Medical's patient monitoring system

15 December 2008

OBS Medical, a wholly-owned subsidiary of British company Oxford BioSignals, has been awarded the prestigious 2008 North American Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award for its Visensia early-warning patient monitoring system.

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development.

OBS Medical’s Visensia product, now available in UK hospitals following extensive trials, is the only patient monitoring system that measures the interplay of the five 'standard' vital signs in continuous real-time, giving an overall view of patient risk status.

Until now, it has only been possible to separately monitor the various vital signs (blood pressure, blood oxygen, temperature, heart rate, respiration rate) rather than measuring the correlations between them. Visensia’s algorithms integrate available individual vital-sign readings into a single numerical index, the Visensia Index (VSI), providing medical staff with a reliable crisis alarm. Visensia virtually eliminates false alarms, which currently make up 86% of all alarms in UK hospitals.

Results of clinical trials, recently published in peer-reviewed international journals, at the world-renowned University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre have shown that Visensia offers several hours advance warning of patient deterioration, buying valuable time for the medical staff to administer treatment or prepare the patient for surgery.

“Unlike the traditional monitoring algorithms, Visensia personalises patient monitoring by evaluating the ‘normal’ thresholds for individual patients against pre-measured normal thresholds”, says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Mike Arani. “The addition of this innovative solution to any monitored unit will greatly boost alarm integrity and timeliness.”

“Visensia can be integrated with any patient monitoring solution in the market,” notes Arani. “It can collect and analyse all five vital parameters from conventional bedside or portable monitors, thereby enhancing the hospital’s existing monitoring system without the need for costly upgrades.”

Marc Smith, Business Manager at Oxford Biosignals adds: “We are thrilled to be back in the UK at this vital and exciting time for the National Health Service. Given the consistently positive feedback from trials of the Visensia early warning system in the USA, I feel confident that we can act as both a support system for NHS nurses and life saver for NHS patients as hospitals continue to fight to improve patient safety.”

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