( dpa ) - Scientists have developed a device that monitors such vital signs as blood pressure and pulse rate and sends the data to a wireless receiver, they said on Sunday.
Singapore General Hospital is testing the prototype from Cadi Scientific, the company formed by four colleagues.
The company told The Straits Times it plans to take the gadget to other parts of the region, China, the United States and the Middle East.
Their initial innovation measures body temperature and sends the data to receivers, freeing nurses from manually taking a patient's body temperature every few hours and enabling the patient to get more uninterrupted rest.
Called the Thermo-SENSOR, it is being used in three hospitals in Singapore and also in intensive care wards of hospitals in Bangkok and Taipei, said Cadi Scientific chief executive Zenton Goh.
Another modified version tracks the movements of patients from one department to another in a hospital for tests or treatment.
The 3-centimeter-wide ThermoSENSOR is taped to a patient's body and measures body temperatures continually, the newspaper said. Radio frequency technology is used to transfer the data to a computer at the nurses' station.
Nurses are able to spot cluster of patients developing fevers at the same time, possibly indicating an infection makings the rounds, said the company's founding director Lim Soh Min.