By/ Dong,Nai-Yun, Chang,Dan-Ching

Do you know what would happen to a patient in medical staff shortage area, while s/he is placed with an endotracheal tube and a ventilator, and left in an intensive care unit? Without appropriate medical equipment and manpower supply, illnesses cannot be properly tended. Patients will have to suffer from a twofold increase in hospitalization expenses day by day and eventually be forced to abandon treatment to avoid burdening their families.

70% of ICU Patients are not Properly Tended

More than 70% ICU patients suffered from late diagnosis or underestimation due to undersupply of medical staff and effective monitoring systems, which can in worse case result it delayed extubation and life-support. Respiratory System is vital especially in critical care. While continuous condition monitoring cannot be supported by one time auscultation and lung sounds evaluation can be impacted by equipment distortion and doctor experiences, risks of delayed treatment are therefore increased.

Collapsed Lung Takes Only 5 to 10 Minutes

Auscultation of heart and lung sounds can detect stenosis, pulmonary edema and lung infections. It can also provide accurate preliminary diagnosis of heart failure and cardiac valve defect. Collapsed lung takes only 5 to 10 minutes and how long does we spend on dealing with it will have impacts on recovery afterwards. Monitoring upon asthma and lung sounds can be seen as an indicator to determine whether we should conduct drug administration or long-term physical care for ICU patients. It can also alleviate risks of emergency incident by signaling early warnings during an anesthesia surgery.

Putting WHO Spirit into Practice, Taiwan R&D Rocks

The automated chest sound monitor, demonstrated in WHA and developed by Heroic-Faith, is a auscultating system which can provide instant warning signals, continuous monitoring mechanism and environmental noise cancellation. This monitor is portable and does not require too much space and cost, which is suitable for ICU and medical supply shortage areas. Except for ICU, this monitor can be applied to an anesthesia surgery to warn any abnormalities and decrease risks of lung collapse and complications. This innovative medical solution can not only guardian our healthcare services, patient security, critical care and underprivileged, but also put into practice of what WHA has encouraged, which are Universal health coverage”, “Patient safety”, ”Emergency and trauma care”, “Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health”.

Integrated with remote medical systems, this monitor can be established in medical institutions so that when there is an emergent incidence, well trained doctors can send decisions made based on its signal notifications, and staff on-site can thereafter conduct instant and appropriate measures. Auscultation of heart and lung sounds requires not only professional diagnosis but also outstanding innovation and technology development, which Taiwan can provide both.