Patient Falls Monitoring Trial Delivers Results

19 July 2005
Brisbane, Australia

Clinical trials which have just concluded at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane have demonstrated that compact monitoring devices have the potential to quickly and accurately detect falls in patients recovering from strokes.

The trial was conducted by The Prince Charles Hospital and the e-Health Research Centre, a joint venture between CSIRO and the Queensland Government, over 14 weeks and involving 15 stroke patients.

Patients wore devices which provided data to medical professionals to alert them to an adverse event, such as a fall or heart arrhythmia, occurring.

The study aimed to detect not just falls but also vital signs, such as heart rate, that may act as precursors to adverse events.

Queensland Health Minister, Gordon Nuttall, says the device has the ability to provide medical professionals with immediate quality information for early detection of medical problems.

"We hope that this device may soon help patients to remain in their comfortable home surroundings, while remaining under expert medical surveillance," Mr Nuttall says.

CEO of the e-Health Research Centre, Gary Morgan, says the Centre is researching and testing the use of personal monitoring technologies in clinical settings with the objective of extending them to community health facilities or to the home.

"In the future, it would be desirable in an emergency for a real-time software system to alert not only the physicians, but the patient and their family, carers or emergency services," Mr Morgan says.

"The patient can continue their normal stroke rehabilitation and daily activities with improved levels of confidence through this monitoring research."

Established in 2003, the e-Health Research Centre is a national research facility in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for healthcare applications.

A $15 million joint venture between CSIRO and the Queensland Government, the Centre is the largest single-funded e-health research and development facility in the southern hemisphere, and comprises a multi-disciplinary team of world-renowned researchers dedicated to excellence in research and health services.

For further information contact:

e-Health Research Centre: Gary Morgan (07) 3024 1602
The Prince Charles Hospital: Jane Bebbington (07) 3350 8382
Qld Health Minister's Office: Fiona Sugden (07) 3225 2680