Boston Hospital Uses Ultrasound to Track Patients

Via eWeek:

The hospital's experimental system consists of a small fannypack with a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ handheld running Linux. Four cables come out of the pack and are attached to the patient: three are glued to the patient's chest and one is clipped to the finger.

This allows the hospital to both monitor the patient's exact location—using a tracking device that Stair describes as looking like "a fat ballpoint pen"—as well as watch some vital signs, specifically cardiac rhythm and oxygen saturation.

The system's intent is to start tracking patient location and condition immediately at the site of the emergency and continue ambulance transportation, triage and movement through multiple medical sites and eventually between rooms at the final facility.

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