Taiwan researchers develop wireless patient monitor for ambulances

An ambulance-mounted wireless sensor system to help save lives is now in the works between a university and a hospital in Taiwan. Taiwan's National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) will work with a Taichung hospital to install the system in ambulances. Such a system will transmit patients' vital signs to emergency wards while patients are being transported to a hospital, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. The report added the NTUT team is also cooperating with Mongolian University of Science and Technology to put the wireless system in use in Mongolia, a vast landlocked country. NTUT engineering professor Tan Tan-hsu said the wireless system can measure a patient's pulse and blood oxygen levels and transmit electrocardiogram data, body temperatures and images of injuries to the hospital's computer server. Complementing this is a compatible smartphone carried by emergency medical technicians. The phones can perform electrocardiogram tests, the report said. The system will allow emergency room doctors to get a real-time overview of patients' condition prior to their arrival at the hospital. This will help them prepare to treat the patients once they arrive. On the other hand, such a system promises to be more valuable to remote areas such as mountain regions, islands, and distant villages, where valuable time can be saved once patients' vital signs are transferred to a main hospital in real time. — TJD, GMA News