Development and evaluation of a non-obtrusive patient monitoring system with smart patient beds

In Chinese hospitals, each patient is checked regularly during their night time. This happens to confirm that there are no emergency situations in which a patient is in need of immediate help. Because the regular checking can be very annoying for patients who are sleeping due to noise, we are looking for a solution to solve this problem using technology. The focus lies on non-obtrusive sensing technologies and on the social relation between patient and doctor. Two prototypes were developed, tested and evaluated on their usability to monitor patients from the central nurse station without disturbing them. The first prototype consists of a piezoelectric sensor with filtering circuit which measures the heartbeats. The second consists of a capacitive sensor capable of sensing the presence of a patient in the bed. Both sensors are placed under the mattress of the patient with as a result that they are not bothered while being monitored.