Emerging technologies in patient monitoring

The healthcare systems in the developed countries are changing rapidly. This is driven by socio-economic developments related to the aging population, the aggravating healthcare costs and the expected shortage of medical staff. These challenges might be – partially – addressed by more autonomous and intelligent patient monitoring with a trend to extend monitoring to lower acuity settings in hospitals or even at home. Currently technology options become available for patient monitoring and more integrated in our daily-lives, which have been originally developed for the consumer market such as miniaturized cameras, smart phones and tablet PC. This opens a wide range of opportunities for personal care, optimised privacy, comfort and family bonding.