The Picture of Health: Video Cameras Are Reducing Infection Rates and Saving Lives.

http://www.bloomberg.com/native/article/?mvi=89f340bc25c847a387167dae1d732c73

Careful and continuous monitoring is critical in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where premature babies (defined as born after less than 37 weeks of gestation) cling to life, often surrounded by the deafening sound of machines and nests of tubes and wires.

According to the World Health Organization, over one in 10 births worldwide are premature—an estimated 15 million babies each year, of which more than 1 million will die because of complications from their prematurity. 

Preemies require special care until their organs have fully developed. Palm-sized infants are placed in temperature-controlled incubators, feeding tubes are inserted through their noses and electrodes and sensors are attached to babies’ sensitive skin to track their breathing, heart rate and oxygen levels.

The monitoring devices are not only invasive and uncomfortable—they can place fragile babies at an even higher risk of infection.

The good news is that this doesn’t have to be the norm. With advancements in wireless monitoring technology rapidly evolving, less invasive methods have the potential to provide better care.

For example, at Manipal University Hospital in Bangalore, India, Xerox researchers are reinventing heart and respiration monitoring with imaging technology, allowing for cost-efficient, more manageable detection without hardware attached.

In the NICU, high-definition webcams record changes in infants’ skin and track their heart rate through a videoplethysmographic (VPG) signal—a series of pulses extracted from the video that reflect the change in vascular blood volume with each cardiac beat. The camera then feeds the information into a computer, which takes into account movement and other factors to determine the baby’s vital signs. Remarkably, with appropriate optics the camera can scan a child from a distance of more than three feet, making it unobtrusive as well as safe.

Providing the highest-quality, least invasive healthcare in the NICU is critical, considering that premature births are the second-leading cause of death of children under 5 years old globally. But even beyond the neonatal unit, the benefits of visual monitoring and its implications on telemedicine could be far-reaching.

Xerox researchers are currently working on ways to expand remote health sensing to diagnose and monitor other health problems, including cardiac arrhythmias, respiratory dysfunction, breast cancer, asthma, perfusion and hypertension.