Medtronic technology combines patient monitoring, decision support

Wireless device enables remote monitoring and enables alerts to deterioration in patient condition.


Hospitals are looking for opportunities to combine patient monitoring and clinical decision support to improve care, and now, a major medical technology company is offering an approach to assist facilities.

Medtronic is offering a combination of technology that enables remote patient monitoring software with wireless monitoring devices and customizable clinical decision support (CDS) mobile applications.



Medtronic contends that its Vital Sync monitoring and CDS solution is intended to simplify time-intensive patient care processes, helping clinicians prevent or mitigate harmful and potentially costly adverse events.

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The company says the new solution gathers patient physiological data from a variety of wireless and bedside devices, made by Medtronic or other vendors. Vital Sync is a connectivity and remote patient monitoring software solution from Medtronic that links electronic medical record systems to a variety of medical devices, including ventilators, capnography monitors, pulse oximeters, depth of consciousness monitors and other devices. Clinicians can remotely view results on any web-enabled device, including smartphones.

The system can use Medtronic’s Vital Sync physiological patch, a lightweight wireless device that’s applied to a patient’s chest and continually collects and transmits physiological data, including heart rate, respiratory rate, single-lead ECG and body position.

The system uses analytics to automatically and continually calculate patient conditions, issuing customized alerts and notifications that can help clinicians learn if a patient’s condition is deteriorating. Respiratory therapy and nursing teams can remotely access patient data to make assessments on whether interventions are needed.

“Many common hospital-based patient safety issues are preventable,” says Julia Strandberg, vice president and general manager of Medtronic health informatics and monitoring. “According to a recent report by the ECRI Institute, the top three patient safety concerns for healthcare organizations in 2017 are insufficient management of electronic health record data, unrecognized patient deterioration and ineffective use of clinical decision support tools.

“The Vital Sync CDS solution was designed based on clinician input and clinical evidence to help hospitals avoid these and other patient safety challenges,” Strandberg says.

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