A University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center (UH) study shows TempTraq, a patented, wearable, Bluetooth continuous temperature monitor in the form of a soft, comfortable patch, can detect a rise in body temperature up to 180 minutes earlier, in a majority of patient cases, than the current standard-of-care (SOC) method. Earlier fever detection empowers clinicians to intervene faster. The promising results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in conjunction with the ASCO Annual Meeting, which took place last week in Chicago.
"This temperature monitoring patch has the potential to improve clinical outcomes for patients undergoing stem cell transplant and intensive chemotherapy for hematological malignancies by identifying neutropenic fever and beginning clinical interventions sooner," said Dr. Ehsan Malek, MD, UH Seidman Cancer Center. "We are looking forward to the next step in our research--implementing this temperature patch in the outpatient stem cell transplant setting."
Unlike other devices and methods that provide physicians with only one point of data and offer no continuous monitoring or alerts, this patented device is the ideal, non-invasive, solution for doctors and nurses who need a continuous, smarter way to track, log and respond to fevers quickly.
"It has been very exciting for our project team, the bedside nursing staff, and our patients to see this device working in real time," said Nina Dambrosio, MSN CNP, UH Seidman Cancer Center.
To study this continuous, real-time method of body temperature measurement, UH tested the feasibility of monitoring body temperature for patients specifically undergoing stem cell transplant or intensive chemotherapy for leukemia. The patches were applied every 24 hours on 10 neutropenic patients throughout their hospital stays. Body temperature was recorded remotely with TempTraq in 10 minute intervals totaling 14,342 temperature measurements, vs the current standard SOC of one measurement every 4 hours.
Though it wasn't tested in this study, Blue Spark's TempTraq Connect, a secure, HIPAA-compliant service supported by the Google Healthcare Cloud Platform, will allow the patches to integrate directly with hospital central monitoring systems and electronic health records (EHR) to safely and securely store patient health care data. Nurses can then view the temperature in their system as frequently as needed and can receive real-time audible or visual temperature change alerts at patient bedsides and/or through the central nursing station. Plus, no more waking patients to take their temperatures, and the hygienic, single-use, disposable design eliminates the hassle, time and cost of sterilizing the device between uses.
The TempTraq system is scalable and can support a single hospital or a multi-hospital/physician group healthcare system.
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