Hospital patients aren’t always confined to their beds – nor are those beds always in the same place. To ensure those patients are always being monitored, Royal Philips Electronics has developed a wearable device designed to transmit real-time data to clinicians.

The IntelliVue MX40 combines Phillips’ IntelliVue platform and Smart-hopping network with the MX40 solution, which displays a patient’s name, vital signs and alerts on a color touch-screen display. The mobile monitor is designed to be used by ambulatory patients in the hospital setting as well as during transport, allowing for real-time surveillance, reporting, data storage and interfacing with the hospital’s electronic medical record through the IntelliVue Information Center.

“(The) MX40 is a game-changing device, saving clinicians time by allowing them to view vital patient data on the MX40 display, rather than repeatedly walking away from the patient to check the central station monitor,” said Dale Wiggins, chief technology officer of patient care and clinical informatics for Andover, Mass.-based Philips Healthcare, in a press release. “It’s a forward-thinking piece of technology that brings clinicians and patients closer together.”

“The MX40 is helpful in streamlining patient monitoring at the bedside. The mobile monitoring function helps us ensure patient safety during transfers and while infusing medication drips,” added Alycia Kielty, RN, a nurse in the surgical cardiovascular unit at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., which has been beta testing the device “For us, these added product benefits have increased communication efficiency and decreased the need for extra bulky equipment.”

Company officials say the real-time data monitoring capabilities enable the MX40 to send alarms to clinicians no matter where the patient is located in the hospital. In addition, the device improves a clinician’s workflow and increases time spent with patients, as it can be used to check and update vital signs. One hospital had told company officials that clinicians spend 40 minutes out of each day tracking down technicians to take vital signs.

The announcement is the latest in Phillips Healthcare’s yearlong quest to boost its patient monitoring solutions – originally designed for critical care settings in hospitals – so that the solutions can be used in any part of the hospital. Last December, the company enhanced monitoring solutions in its IntelliVue Guardian Solutions line, including the MP5SC Spot-Check monitor.

“With these new solutions we are broadening our portfolio to meet the rapidly emerging needs of general care departments in hospitals," said Steve Rusckowski, CEO for Philips Healthcare, in a Dec. 9, 2010 press release. "I am convinced that these solutions are a landmark in patient vital sign acquisition and will help simplify clinical workflows and improve the quality of patient care. Because of our expertise in patient monitoring and the considerable market potential of vital sign acquisition in low acuity settings in hospitals, this is an important growth area for Philips.”