The Cambridge Design Partnership has created a clip-on wearable to measure and track vital signs of trauma patients in disaster zones and on battlefields.
The First Response Monitor is designed to monitor heart and respiratory rate. It clips to the nose and can provide information via the built-in screen or using the smartphone or tablet app.
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The wearable can provide a graph showing how the heart and respiratory rate has changed over time, which is essential for keeping track of a patients' condition over time. This information can be sent using Bluetooth LE in real-time, allowing a medic to care for multiple casualties.
The CDP first spoke with army medics about what they needed in a product and what issues they faced during emergency situations involving multiple casualties. What they discovered was that while there are devices that monitor both heart rate and respiration, they are often bulky, difficult to use and expensive.
Although the planned use of the First Response Monitor is for the battlefield and disasters in need of emergency response, the applications of its sensors stretch wider for instance, to remote health monitoring for civilians.
Many fitness trackers cover only heart rate monitoring, and while that information is important, it's only half the story. With a combination of heart rate, respiration and temperature, you can get a very detailed and informative overview of your body's condition. This information could make a big difference when training, seeing how your body reacts to certain workouts and where your weaknesses lie.
We don't see CDP's nose clip-on wearable being popular down the gym but it's certainly an area of interest for upcoming gym wearables.
Would you like to add respiratory rate metrics to your heart rate data? Let us know in the comments or over on our Forum.
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