ArticlePilot and feasibility studies2022
A pilot study to investigate real-time digital alerting from wearable sensors in surgical patients.
Article in Pilot and feasibility studies, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04638738 (Implementation of Wearable Sensors and Digital Alerting Systems in Secondary Care), which is not on this map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Implementation of Wearable Sensors and Digital Alerting Systems in Secondary Care: a Prospective Evaluation of Clinical Outcomes
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Wearable Electronic Monitoring of Vital Signs in Hospitalised Adults: A Nursing Focused Scoping Review of Clinical, Economic and Implementation Outcomes.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- Multimodal Characterization of Atrial Fibrillation: From Patient-Specific Anatomy and Electrophysiology to Standardized Atrial Mapping.Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.) · 2026Review
- Continuous Temperature Monitoring via Wearable Devices for Fever or Infection Management in Acute Care Hospitals: Scoping Review of Clinical Implementation and Data Analytics.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- The Usability of Continuous Monitoring Devices With Deterioration Alerting Systems in Noncritical Care Units: Scoping Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2026Review
- Smart technologies and digital innovations for improving perioperative patient safety: a review.Patient safety in surgery · 2025Review
- Assessing the Accuracy of Bed-Occupancy With a tina.care Bed Sensor in Hospital Wards and Home Care Settings: A Pilot Study.IEEE open journal of engineering in medicine and biology · 2025Article
- Views and Uses of Sepsis Digital Alerts in National Health Service Trusts in England: Qualitative Study With Health Care Professionals.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Article
- Early detection of deteriorating patients in general wards through continuous contactless vital signs monitoring.Frontiers in medical technology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundContinuous vital sign monitoring may identify changes sooner than current standard monitoring.
objectiveTo investigate if the use of real-time digital alerts sent to healthcare staff can improve the time taken to identify unwell patients and those with sepsis.
designA prospective cohort study design.
settingWest Middlesex University Hospital, UK.
participantsFifty acutely unwell surgical patients admitted to hospital.
interventionPatients wore a lightweight wearable sensor measuring heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and temperature every 2 min whilst standard intermittent ward monitoring of vital signs was performed by nurses. Digital alerts were sent to healthcare staff from the sensor to a smartphone device. All alerts were reviewed for recruited patients to identify the exact time on the sensor in which deterioration occurred. The time to acknowledgement was then reviewed for each action and an average time to acknowledgement calculated.
resultsThere were 50 patients recruited in the pilot study, of which there were vital sign alerts in 18 patients (36%). The total number of vital sign alerts generated in these 18 patients was 51. Of these 51 alerts, there were 7 alerts for high HR (13.7%), 33 for RR (64.7%) and 11 for temperature (21.6%). Out of the 27 acknowledged alerts, there were 2 alerts for HR, 17 for RR and 8 for temperature. The average time to staff acknowledgement of the notification for all alerts was 154 min (2.6 h). There were some patients which had shown signs of deterioration in the cohort. The frequency of routine observation monitoring was increased in 2 cases, 3 patients were referred to a senior clinician and 2 patients were initiated on the sepsis pathway.
conclusionThis study demonstrates the evaluation of digital alerts to nurses in real time. Although not all alerts were acknowledged, deterioration on the ward observations was detected and actions were taken accordingly. Patients were started on the sepsis pathway and escalation to senior clinicians occurred. Further research is required to review why only some alerts were acknowledged and the effects of digital alerting on patient outcomes.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04638738.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.