Tech talk: Infant protection systems, RoboDocs and a noise-measuring app

Saint Peter's digital infant foot scanner helps it keep track of patients.

Photo courtesy of CertaScan Technologies

Digital scan technology keeps babies and mothers linked for life

Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., is using a new electronic system to help keep babies who are born in its hospital safe.

The hospital recently invested in a digital scanner from CertaScan Technologies to log infants’ footprints, replacing the traditional ink and paper process. According to "NJTV News," the hospital scans a baby’s footprint as well as the mother’s index finger and links the two together in a cloud-based system.

The system not only helps with correct identification within the hospital, but also when the mother and child leave the hospital.

The scan, typically done a few hours after the baby is born, is linked to a national missing and exploited children database as an added security feature. Parents also can access the file online with a password. It’s added protection and an enhanced keepsake.

RoboDocs ensure that the doctor is always in

Orlando Health’s RoboDocs not only allow doctors to connect with patients virtually, but also allows them to move comfortably from one patient room to the next. The robots are actually portable control stations with a camera for doctors to see on-site staff and observe patients, and a screen that allows the patient and colleagues to see the doctor.

As long as there is an internet connection or hotspot access, Jeffrey A. Sadowsky, M.D., director of telemedicine in critical care, says that via the RoboDoc, doctors can “beam in and assess a patient, do a comprehensive examination concentrated on the affected organs, place orders, make ventilator changes and run codes or deal with most types of medical emergencies.” 

The QuietNight app is designed to help facilities track and mitigate excessive sound in hospitals.

Photo courtesy of Hospital Quality Institute

App helps to ensure a quiet night's stay for hospitalized patients

The Hospital Quality Institute (HQI), a subsidiary of the California Hospital Association, has developed a free app to help measure hospital noise levels in real time. The QuietNight mobile app was borne out of HQI’s Journey to a Quiet Room initiative.

The app registers and tracks baseline as well as startle noise and provides actionable guidance when noise levels are moving to unacceptable levels. It also integrates with the Journey to a Quiet Night toolkit, which contains best practices for noise reduction, abatement and maintaining a quiet therapeutic environment.

The developers are working on iterations to enable GPS functionality and enhanced data flows. The additional features will enable benchmarking of multiple users in similar environments and stimulate peer exchange of best mitigation practices. They also will help to identify “hot spots” for targeted noise-reduction strategies.

The QuietNight app only measures sound pressure and does not record audio, which makes it fully HIPAA-compliant.