Aims Measurement of vital signs is a crucial part of hospital care, providing important information about patients’ clinical status. Contactless sensors provide an alternative to conventional equipment which requires physical contact. This is valuable in bypassing issues such as obtaining measurements from patients who cannot tolerate being touched and mitigating disease transmission risks. Our prospective observational study explores the accuracy of a multichannel ambient and contactless sensor (AS), in elderly hospital inpatients.
Methods The AS consists of a RGB, thermal and light camera that converts measurements of a patient’s facial heat, skin movements and colour changes into their vital signs. 11 patients from an acute aged care ward were recruited. Heart rate (HR), oxygen saturation (SPO2), and body temperature were taken simultaneously by AS and conventional vital signs equipment multiple times a day for up to 5 days. The agreement between the two sets of data were compared using a range of statistical methods.
Results 146 sets of paired vital signs data were obtained. AS was reliable in measuring HR, both in day and night, with constant, positive bias of 0.93 beats per minute (bpm), although precision could be improved as indicated by the clinical agreement range of 6.38bpm. However, there was less agreement in temperature and SPO2 taken from AS compared to conventional equipment.
Conclusion Contactless vital signs sensors provide an unobtrusive option in monitoring patients’ clinical trajectory in hospital. Improvement in its precision and further studies into its validity in different settings would be helpful in the future