Hospital Demo Suggests Respiratory Motion Patient Monitor May be Key Safety Tool in Caring for Ebola Patients

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital has shown that Respiratory Motion, Inc.'s ExSpiron™ respiratory depression monitor could be a cornerstone in the care of quarantined Ebola patients.

The demonstration at the hospital's Medical Device Plug-and-Play Interoperability Lab / Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology showed how medical devices – which currently require manual intervention – can be integrated to make automatic adjustments in some patient care, such as shutting off pain pumps or adjusting ventilators in response to changes in a patient's respiration. Such automation could be critical for Ebola patients, since clinicians must take several minutes to "gown up" every time they enter a quarantine room.

The ExSpiron monitor was linked to a widely-used medication pump.  When the ExSpiron monitor sensed respiratory depression, it could automatically shut down the pain pump to avoid overmedicating a patient whose respiration is already compromised. 

"Delays are life-threatening with every case of respiratory depression, but the risk increases dramatically when patients are quarantined and clinicians must take several minutes to put on personal protective equipment," said Dr. Jenny Freeman, chief executive of Respiratory Motion. 

The demonstration has implications for most clinicians because the integration of technology like the ExSpiron monitor with other devices can ensure that medical treatment is automatically adjusted in response to subtle changes in a patient's breathing, which can foreshadow respiratory failure. 

Respiratory depression poses a significant threat to patient safety. Health care providers seek ways to identify patient risk before it becomes life-threatening. Repeated studies show the ExSpiron Patient Monitor is more effective than other technologies for identifying early changes in respiration that occur in advance of life-threatening respiratory depression, giving care givers time to intervene effectively.

In the hospital, changes in breathing status often precede deterioration towards respiratory depression and cardiac arrest. In the U.S. alone, cardiopulmonary arrests are estimated to occur as often as 750,000 times a year among hospitalized patients and cause more than 50,000 deaths annually.  The most common events preceding these cardiopulmonary arrests are respiratory.

Respiratory depression can occur partly in response to medications, such as narcotic painkillers and sedatives commonly administered after surgery. Because of the strength of these medications and the fact that each patient's response to them is unique, respiratory depression can strike when least expected. Averting respiratory failure through early detection can reduce catastrophic events, improve patient care and outcomes, decrease healthcare costs and save lives.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality finds the annual costs of respiratory insufficiency, arrest and failure was $7.8 billion in 2007, making respiratory issues the third most rapidly increasing hospital inpatient cost in the United States: http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb91.jsp

The Respiratory Motion monitor measures minute ventilation – the amount of air actually breathed by a patient. In 2013, Respiratory Motion won U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for its revolutionary ExSpiron monitoring system, the first technology to provide continuous, non-invasive minute ventilation measurements in spontaneously breathing patients.

About Respiratory Motion, Inc. 

Respiratory Motion, Inc. is a medical device company based in Waltham, Mass., that develops innovative technology to monitor respiratory status to help clinicians and hospitals improve patient safety and outcomes.  Respiratory Motion has developed the ExSpiron™ as a major improvement on the current standard of care in patient monitoring. The ExSpiron™ is the first patient monitor to provide real-time, continuous, non-invasive minute ventilation, tidal volume and respiratory rate information that enables early identification and prevention of approaching respiratory failure and its associated risks and costs. Using ExSpiron™ technology can improve patient safety and outcomes, reduce costly complications and optimize hospital workflow.  To learn more, visit www.respiratorymotion.com.  

SOURCE Respiratory Motion, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.respiratorymotion.com

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