VitalConnect's revolutionary Vista Solution platform  and elegantly designed VitalPatch biosensor is set to change the nature of patient care. Hospitals and healthcare facilities can reduce readmission by providing monitoring from home.

By Stephanie Kreml,

MD

The idea for VitalConnect began in 2010 when doctors from Stanford University approached Nersi Nazari to develop a “smart band-aid” to measure vital signs without having to keep patients connected to cumbersome medical equipment. Over the last decade, Dr. Nazari built VitalConnect to enable hospital-grade accuracy patient monitoring at home. The VitalPatch device is the realization of that initial “smart band-aid” concept, and now the company offers a complete platform with the launch of Vista Solution in 2018, and the updated Vista Solution 2.0 in April 2019.

“The VitalPatch biosensor provides physicians and other clinicians with real-time vital sign data. Patients can be continuously monitored through VitalConnect’s end-to-end interface, VistaSolution 2.0,” explains VitalConnect CEO Peter Van Haur.

And with Van Haur joining the VitalConnect team last summer, the company is geared to empower clinicians in the hospital and beyond.

Van Haur brings over two decades of experience in the medical device industry, with positions previously at Covidien, St. Jude, and Cordis. “I have a passion for getting the very best out of individuals and teams,” says Van Haur.

He points out important insights he gained after reading The Power of Moments by Dan and Chip Heath. “This particular book stood out to me as I received a new perspective on how others are impacted by moments which many of us would describe as small or inconsequential.”

By paying attention to these moments, Van Haur notes that engaging employees can start at day one. “For example, organizing an exceptional onboarding may have a meaningful and lasting impact on employees’ motivation and inspiration when joining a new company. I now view moments, in a company or with loved ones, with a different perspective.”

And understanding the impact of these moments extends to monitoring patients. With VitalConnect’s platform, physicians can ensure that no event or change in a patient’s status is overlooked when they are wearing the VitalPatch.

Clinicians can effortlessly keep track of their patients wearing the VitalPatch with the Vista Solution 2.0 dashboard. “The Vista Solution 2.0 user interface shows patient status in easy-to-interpret tiles,” says Van Haur.

The Vista Solution 2.0 platform also applies predictive analytics algorithms to the data acquired by the VitalPatch, alerting clinicians to abnormal vitals as well as providing fall detection. And by synchronizing third-party devices, the Vista Solution 2.0 platform can also monitor weight, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry as well as core body temperature.

Vista Solution 2.0 utilizes National Early Warning Scores (NEWS) to flag patients at risk of early cardiac arrest, unanticipated ICU admissions, and death. This allows Vista Solution 2.0 to track trends in clinical responses and alert physicians of potential clinical deterioration so they can escalate clinical care if necessary. The dashboard provides color-coded notifications to indicate the urgency of clinical response.

VitalConnect worked closely with its customers to ensure clinicians receive the most actionable insights from Vista Solution 2.0. And in addition to accommodating typical hospital stays, the platform will enable clinicians to discharge some patients with continuous monitoring.
In a pilot study performed at Harvard, using the VitalPatch not only significantly decreased direct
costs, it also reduced patient readmission rates.

“VitalConnect is focused on improving our remote monitoring system,” says Van Haur. These activities include continuing to decrease latency, which will minimize data transmission delays to clinicians, and applying advances in machine learning algorithms to more accurately identify patients at high risk of complicating clinical events and mortality.

All of this progress comes as the patient population is needing more solutions for home monitoring. “While we’re seeing steady growth and breakthrough in wearable devices in terms of heart rate, the market is currently lacking efficient and affordable monitoring solutions for outpatient care for more serious conditions,” Van Haur explains. “Additionally, there is an opportunity to increase automation and speed to help physicians and their patients improve outcomes.”

VitalConnect fully addresses the discomfort and disruption that comes with monitoring patients. Its solutions eliminate the need for hospital nurses to wake patients while taking vital signs throughout the night. And patients can be discharged earlier with assurance because they are continuously monitored at home in the post-acute setting. VitalConnect’s offerings keep patient’s needs in the forefront, improving patient satisfaction and outcomes.

The combination VitalPatch and Vista Solution 2.0 provides a powerful remote patient monitoring solution as healthcare continues to decentralize the delivery of care. With VitalPatch’s multi-parameter acquisition and the sleek form factor and the sophisticated risk stratification the Vista Solution 2.0 platform provides, clinicians can confidently manage their patient populations in any location.

“VitalConnect offers multiple solutions which allow physicians the option to monitor many different aspects of a patient.” Van Haur points out that while the competition mainly focuses on identifying arrhythmias, “our VitalPatch can measure arrhythmias or up to 11 vital signs.”

The VitalPatch is a single-use disposable biosensor and is easy to apply to the patient’s chest wall. In addition to being a single-lead EKG with heart rate monitoring, it measures heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, body posture, and step activity. VitalConnect continues to improve the VitalPatch, and patients can now wear the device continuously for seven days.

VitalConnect lauds the smallest and lightest Class 2 FDA cleared biosensor available, with the VitalPatch’s elegant form factor weighing only 11 grams, or about two nickels. The water-resistant device allows patients to bathe and continue their regular activities while wearing it. And there are multiple placement positions for the VitalPatch to improve patient comfort.

The VitalPatch affords the latest in technological capability, as the VitalConnect team developed the proprietary VitalCore Microprocessor to minimize power consumption and provide real-time data transfer for best-in-class data monitoring. And the device stores up to 10 hours of raw data onboard, providing a buffer should the patient be away from connectivity and allowing further post processing and development of new algorithms.