Respiratory compromise is one of the top five conditions leading to increased hospital costs and the third most rapidly increasing cost. General floor patients with respiratory compromise are 29 times more likely to die. Studies indicate that over 60% of the cardiac arrests in hospital patients brought on by respiratory compromise are preventable with early warning. Real time respiratory rate monitoring for all hospitalized patients would provide the early warning needed.
We have developed a non-contact sensor that can determine the respiratory rate and movements, as well as any abnormalities related to breathing, without disturbing the subject. The sensor can be placed near the hospital bed and therefore does not pose any discomfort to the subject. It is capable of detecting a person’s breathing pattern and other movements without creating the feeling of being monitored. The sensor can also provide long-term sleep monitoring, thereby enabling doctors to use this sensor data to diagnose subjects in their home settings.
Our sensor is very sensitive to fluctuations against the background temperature distribution and allows it to accurately detect fine movements such as chest motion during breathing. We use the time-varying signal generated by the sensor due to chest movements to detect the respiration rate at rest. Our sensor can also be used to monitor sleep and take advantage of the respiration rate variability and body movements to determine sleep stages and erratic movements at night due to epileptic seizures.