Web-based remote monitoring of infant incubators in the ICU.

2003 DEC 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Web-based remote monitoring of infant incubators is being used in the ICU.

According to a study from South Korea, "A web-based real-time operating, management, and monitoring system for checking temperature and humidity within infant incubators using the Intranet has been developed and installed in the infant Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

"We have created a pilot system which has a temperature and humidity sensor and a measuring module in each incubator, which is connected to a web-server board via an RS485 port. The system transmits signals using standard web-based TCP/IP so that users can access the system from any Internet-connected personal computer in the hospital," wrote D.I. Shin and colleagues, Asan Medical Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Using this method, the system gathers temperature and humidity data transmitted from the measuring modules via the RS485 port on the web-server board and creates a web document containing these data," the researchers wrote.

"The system manager can maintain centralized supervisory monitoring of the situations in all incubators while sitting within the infant ICU at a work space equipped with a personal computer. The system can be set to monitor unusual circumstances and to emit an alarm signal expressed as a sound or a light on a measuring module connected to the related incubator," the researchers stated.

"If the system is configured with a large number of incubators connected to a centralized supervisory monitoring station, it will improve convenience and assure meaningful improvement in response to incidents that require intervention," the researchers concluded.

Shin and colleagues published the results of their research in the International Journal of Medical Informatics (Web-based remote monitoring of infant incubators in the ICU. Int J Med Inform, 2003;71(2-3):151-156).

For additional information, contact S.J. Huh, Asan Medical Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 388-1 PungNap Dong, Seoul 138736, South Korea.

The publisher of the International Journal of Medical Informatics can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Ireland, Ltd., Customer Relations Manager, Bay 15, Shannon Industrial Estate CO, Clare, Ireland.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Medical Devices.

This article was prepared by Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week editors from staff and other reports.