Unlocking opportunities to transform patient care: an expert insight on limitations and opportunities in patient monitoring.

Background

Current patient monitoring technologies are crucial for delivering personalised and timely care and are critical in achieving the best health outcomes while maintaining high care standards. However, these technologies also present several challenges affecting patients and healthcare professionals.

Information overload

Healthcare providers often deal with excess data, making it challenging to identify the most critical patient information quickly. This may lead to delays in necessary interventions and potentially poorer patient outcomes.

Alarm fatigue

Many patient monitoring systems trigger frequent false alarms. This high incidence can cause healthcare providers to become desensitised, potentially leading to slower response times or overlooked important alerts.

Integration challenges

Current systems often need more seamless integration with other healthcare technologies, making it difficult for healthcare providers to have a cohesive view of the patient's health. This lack of integration can impair care coordination and increase workloads. This paper presents the findings from a group of experts who described the state of the art of patient monitoring and discussed potential solutions and new pathways for developing these technologies.

COI Statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: Maurizio Cecconi provides consultancy for GE Healthcare, Edwards Lifesciences, and Directed Systems. Ana L. Hutanu received payment from GE HealthCare for medical communication consultancy for the present manuscript and an advisory board meeting. John Beard is an employee of GE HealthCare. Patricio Gonzalez-Pizarro received lecture fees from Mindray and participated in a GE HealthCare advisory meeting. Anna Batchelor received compensation for a GE HealthCare workshop. Jörn Grensemann is a member of the Commission on Standardization and Technical Safety of the German Society for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. All authors declare that their judgment and output for this manuscript were not hindered by any competing interest.

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