Feasibility of a Wireless Monitoring System as an Alternative to Current Bedside MonitorsInvestigators:

Background: Current post-operative monitoring practices of patients at Korle-Bu teaching hospital rely on manual blood pressure, temperature and heart rate monitoring which are inefficient, and often miss the onset of complications. Consumer-grade wearables (e.g., Fitbit and Xiaomi band), which collect vital signs similar to clinical-grade monitors and transmit them in near-real time to a smartphone/IPad and then to a cloud-based platform that allows further processing of data, provide an opportunity to implement a wireless monitoring system as an alternative to current bedside monitors. ii. General Aim: To establish the feasibility of a Fitbit/Xiaomi band-based wireless monitoring system for post-operative in-hospital monitoringiii. Methodology: Fifteen (15) inpatient (pediatric appendicitis), and 15 accident centre patients (adult and pediatric trauma) will be recruited at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital at two sites: the inpatient pediatric surgery wards, and the accident centre. A Fitbit/Xiaomi band will be placed on each inpatient’s wrist on postoperative day 1 and until they are discharged, and on each trauma patient’s wrist while in the accident centre. The Fitbit/Xiaomi band will be linked using Bluetooth technology to an IPad or iPhone, and data will be streamed to the IDataPoint cloud-based platform that will be accessible to the nurse on the IPad or iPhone, and on the surgeon’s phone. Fitbit and Xiaomi band data will be downloaded and compared to manually obtained vitals from the patient medical charts. At the conclusion of the study, all study participants, parents and up to 10 healthcare workers will be invited to participate in a voluntary semi-structured interview to ascertain perspectives from the respective individuals.iv. Expected Outcome At the end of this study, we hope to establish the feasibility of this wireless monitoring system as a means of monitoring patients postoperatively and after trauma and pave the way for further evaluation