ALYN Hospital and FirstDay Healthcare are pioneering wireless vital sign monitoring for children with complex medical conditions, enhancing patient care by improving parental involvement, mobility, and clinical efficiency.
When Dr. Ross Sommers, neonatologist and founding CEO of Firstday Healthcare (FDH) approached ALYNnovation, ALYN Hospital’s Innovation, he had a clear goal in mind: to take the innovative software he had designed for American children with complex medical conditions and bring it to Israel, aiming to improve the way patients and their families cope with medical alerts from afar. This smartphone application is connected to a Bluetooth monitoring system which includes a heart rate and temperature monitoring patch and a wireless device measuring blood oxygen saturation; parents can view their child’s vital signs child from miles away.
Currently, the Helmsley Pediatric & Adolescent Rehabilitation Research Center (PARC) is conducting a pilot study on the FirstDay Healthcare system. The research team, consisting of Prof. Tamar Weiss, Prof. Yaffa Zisk Rony, Dr. Eliezer Be’eri, Naomi Shoshani, Keren Fux, and Nechama Tannenbaum, is spearheading efforts to determine the user experience of patients, family members, and hospital staff.
To date, feedback has been extremely positive. Parents have shared that being able to monitor their children's vital signs at all times helps them feel more involved and informed about their care.
Nurses appreciate how this system is suited to mobile babies and toddlers, whose frequent movements risk unplugging the standard monitoring systems, and physical therapists have noted the significant benefits of providing therapy without wires and large machines.
Dr Ross Sommers remarked "Our goal has been to offer parents of children with medical complexity the option of wireless vital sign monitoring as an alternative to traditional wired systems, which can restrict mobility and generate false alerts. I am immensely proud of our collaboration with ALYN Hospital and aspire to establish it as a model for how healthcare providers can leverage technology to enhance care for this population, both in hospital settings and at home."
Recognizing the potential of this technology to extend beyond the hospital, ALYN Hospital sees the FirstDay Healthcare system as a promising solution for home use, enabling parents to monitor their children’s health with greater ease and confidence.
Over the coming weeks and months, the ALYN team will continue to investigate additional facilitators and barriers of Firstday Healthcare’s wireless monitoring system, to establish ways in which patient care for patients, family members, and medical professionals can be enhanced.
