Hospital staff soon may use paging technology to do more than alert doctors. Marquette Medical Systems Inc. introduced the IMPACT.wf system, an automatic alarm notification system that displays echo-cardio-gram waveforms and other pertinent medical information on wireless handsets, such as pagers, smart phones and palmtop computers.
The system allows medical personnel to carry a pager-like device, made by Data Critical Corp., that mimics an alarm tone whenever a patient’s monitor sounds an alarm. The “pager” beeps and then displays the patient’s bed number, name, diagnosis, heart rate and 6-10 second ECG, heart rate and arrhythmia waveform data to doctors. Caregivers then can determine the seriousness of the case before choosing the appropriate response.
The system recently received Federal Drug Administration 510(k) clearance after 11 months of evaluation at Baylor University Medical Center’s “Hospital Floor of the Future” in Dallas. The FDA must approve all medical technology.
IMPACT stands for Informing Mobile Personnel And Care Tracking Waveform Paging System.
“The IMPACT waveform pager has become an important component on our distributed monitoring floor,” said Jim Benney, clinical manager at Baylor. “The nurse is confident the IMPACT pager will immediately notify and display the patient’s cardiac event. Enhancements to quality and productivity have been possible due to the immediate ECG waveform notification, as well as reductions in response time to cardiac events and frequent updates of ECG changes captured throughout a nurse’s shift.”
“IMPACT speeds the ability to make informed decisions,” said Teri Ryan, product manager for IMPACT.wf at Marquette. “Caregivers no longer need to second guess text-only pages and rush to central or bedside monitors to get real information.”
IMPACT consists of a server, display, Ethernet-to-serial converter, transmitter and waveform receivers. Monitor alarms are detected via a connection to the Marquette Unity Network. The system is the exact same technology as Data Critical’s StatView system, formerly the Cardio-Pager, but with a different name.
Both companies stress that the StatView and IMPACT.wf wireless receiver is not a pager, but a wireless device that uses a paging platform and paging technology to do more than a pager. It can be triggered by an alarm and/or on a scheduled basis, can alert an individual or all caregivers and send text messages as well as waveform data.
IMPACT.wf is part of an entire family of alarm notification systems under Marquette’s Distributed Monitoring Care 2000 initiative.
Marquette Medical Systems is a manufacturer of medical electronics equipment and systems for diagnostic cardiology, patient monitoring and integration of clinical information based in Milwaukee, Wis.
Data Critical is a manufacturer and marketer of wireless telemedicine and computing solutions for the health care, public safety and utility industries based in Redmond, Wash.
