How smart bed technology is transforming patient care

Smart hospital beds provide greater benefits beyond the place to rest for patients. These beds are equipped with a myriad of sensors and monitors that enable real-time monitoring of a patient’s vital signs, including heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, body temperature, and movements.

Therefore, sophisticated hospital beds not only enhance patients’ comfort but also provide invaluable information about their clinical condition to healthcare professionals, enabling them to deliver medical attention promptly.

Smart vs. traditional hospital beds
Traditional hospital beds were designed to provide a place for patients to rest while they were being treated. Mostly, these beds are static, with limited or no available adjustments for patients’ positioning or comfort. This lack of adaptability may not only cause discomfort but also lead to complications that could lead to prolonged hospital stays.

Smart hospital beds are innovative beds integrated with advanced features and functionalities that provide significant comfort and safety for patients.

The adjustable modes enable them to find the most comfortable position for sleeping, resting, or engaging in activities like watching television or reading. Certain smart beds are also equipped with built-in massage functions to relieve pain.

Automated electric beds, built in the 1990s, underwent continual improvements through applications of modern research and technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, sensors, ergonomics, pressure layers, and built-in scales.

Smart beds are developed by integrating technology and communications, such as computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning, deep learning methods, and the IoT for rapid and precise monitoring of patients.

Unlike traditional hospital beds, smart beds transmit clinical data wirelessly to healthcare providers, enabling them to closely monitor patients and provide immediate attention if any abnormalities are detected.

Smart beds exploit technologies, such as graphical interfaces and actuators, to provide a higher level of service, including real-time monitoring.

Besides real-time monitoring of clinical data through sensors and IoT, current smart hospital beds are equipped with alarm systems to alert supervisors in case of abnormal event detection in patients.

Advanced smart beds are designed to automatically update the patient’s medical record with all the acquired data, including the number of times the patient has been repositioned or left their beds.

How is smart bed technology transforming patient care?
A combination of multiple technologies, including machine learning, a sensor network, a morphable tile-like surface, and computer support for data analysis, risk assessment, and alerts, has offered real-time monitoring of patient’s vital signs, including respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood pressure, which helps prevent adverse outcomes.

For example, an abnormal elevation in body temperature indicates the risks of sepsis; therefore, these patients would require immediate assessment and intervention.7 Similarly, continual cardiorespiratory rate monitoring is essential for patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or those with sleep disorders to detect a life-threatening situation.

Smart beds equipped with a smart Fiber Bragg Grating (FGB) sensor system can automatically detect the behavior of bedridden patients and their vital signs.8 This system can effectively prevent patients from falling out of bed, bed soreness, and life-threatening situations (e.g., elevated heart rate).

Typically, the FGB interrogator is connected to a computer and an alarm system to alert medical professionals in case of abnormal clinical data.

A low-cost magnetic induction system has been designed to be placed underneath the bed mattress, which can detect a patient’s presence on the bed by monitoring his cardiorespiratory rate.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) sensors have been used for non-obtrusive sensing of vital parameters. These unobtrusive depth sensors have enabled remote monitoring of patient’s movement in their bed. This pressure-sensing architecture helps monitor the sleep quality of patients.

Mapping pressure points on a patient’s body has also proved to be beneficial in determining whether a bed is occupied or not. This information is crucial in every care facility to detect whether a patient has fallen off the bed or tried to get out of it without assistance.

Deep learning and machine learning algorithms have also been applied to assess heartbeat signals generated by a 3D solid-state accelerometer embedded into a smart bed.

Patients with medical conditions that limit their ability to change positions are at a high risk of developing bedding ulcers. The use of smart beds has reduced the incidence of pressure or bedding ulcers, which are skin injuries that occur due to prolonged pressure.

Pressure sensors monitor and detect pressure over the entire patient’s body, modeling constructs pressure maps, and machine learning predicts the risks of developing pressure ulcers. This data helps medical staff to take prompt action to prevent pressure ulcers.

Challenges experienced by manufacturers
Stryker Corporation, Paramount Bed, Hill-Rom Holdings, Joerns Healthcare, Stiegelmeyer, Getinge Group, and Invacare Corporation are considered key players in the medical smart bed market.

Despite the benefits, the limited adoption of smart beds and their restrictive market growth have been attributed to their high cost, regulatory hurdles, and data privacy concerns.

Furthermore, the majority of research has been conducted on prototypes rather than on real hospital beds, which limits the generalizability of the findings to actual clinical settings.

How can we enhance smart bed use in the future?
It is important to overcome the challenges above to enhance the wide use of smart beds. This can be achieved by fostering collaborative efforts between institutions and countries, increasing funding, standardizing protocols, and providing regulatory support.

Increased funding can support large-scale real-life studies across diverse populations, which is essential to assess the efficacy of new smart bed designs. Since newer smart bed designs use advanced technologies like electronic health records (EHRs) and AI, it is imperative to build public trust regarding data protection measures.

An increase in awareness about the benefits of smart beds can further promote its broader implementation. Greater awareness about smart bed benefits could increase demand, which could boost the overall market size for medical smart beds in the coming years. News Medical