Philips, a well known manufacturer of electronics in the health and consumer segment is now all set to develop a sensor bed which is able to keep a close check on the health of heart failure patients.
This development is a part of the 4-year long ‘My Heart’ project which is being funded largely by the European Union. One of the many aims of this project is to help spot heart problems several days before they can actually become fatal, and this is exactly what the sensor bed will be designed to do.
The new sensor bed will incorporate an electronic weighing scale and a blood pressure monitor. Other than these, the bed will be packed with sensors that will effectively measure heart rate, breathing rate and body movements while sleeping.
Further, the heart patient would be made to wear a vest which is inter-woven with electrodes that provide a full electro-cardiogram reading.
The information and data that is collected via the sensor bed will then be analyzed by nurses on a PDA (personal Digital Assistant) device and the results can then be sent via a telephone lien or broadband connection to doctors.
Those involved in the development of the sensor bed for heart patients also feel that this device could provide clues to interrupted sleep just by measuring the sleep phase patterns.
As of now, it is not yet clear whether the European Union countries involved in the My Heart project will be testing eth technology or when exactly the device will be marketed.