National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), the Taoyuan City Government and local technology companies on Thursday unveiled a blood oxygen monitor platform and mixed reality headsets to help medical workers combat silent hypoxia in COVID-19 patients.
The equipment was developed to facilitate “zero contact” treatment methods and reduce hypoxia deaths, they said.
The program’s partners include the Industrial Technology Research Institute and Microsoft Taiwan, among others, they said, adding that the equipment would be deployed in six municipal quarantine facilities.
Photo courtesy of National Taiwan University Hospital
One-third of COVID-19 patients with mild or moderate symptoms might experience rapidly deteriorating health conditions in late stages of the disease, said Lee Chien-chang (李建璋), deputy director of NTUH’s Center of Intelligent Healthcare.
This makes early detection of health downturns crucial, Lee said.
However, the deployment of manual vital-sign monitors puts medical workers at increased risk of contracting the disease, he said, adding that repeatedly getting in and out of personal protective equipment also causes fatigue.
The new real-time blood oxygen monitoring platform utilizes artificial intelligence, and is equipped with a thermometer and blood oxygen and blood pressure measuring devices, Lee said.
The platform automatically alerts medical personnel when a patient’s blood oxygen concentration drops to 95 percent of normal levels, which makes rapid medical intervention necessary, he said.
The mixed-reality sick room system uses Microsoft HoloLens headsets to livestream patient images to doctors, who can assess their condition through the Teams teleconference software, he said.
The program collects and applies big data analytics to patients’ vital signs, NTUH superintendent Wu Ming-shiang (吳明賢) said.
This would help medical workers assess disease risks and warn doctors of complications before they occur, he said.
“Intelligent medicine helps hospitals detect complications accurately with fewer personnel and can even benefit preventive care,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transformation of information technology in the medical sector.
NTUH medical college dean Ni Yen-hsuan (倪衍玄) said that the equipment is expected to reduce medical staff’s exposure to COVID-19 and lead to significant care quality improvements under pandemic conditions.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that the city and Taoyuan General Hospital collaborated on the project because the city, as a national gateway, is in a good position to impede the virus.
Microsoft Taiwan general manager Ken Sun (孫基康) said the company takes an open-code approach to the technologies so that they can be applied widely in the medical field.
Microsoft commends Taiwan’s medical workers and hopes that the company can make further contributions to intelligent medical care, he said.
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