Sensiotec Leads The Way For Intelligent Remote Patient Monitoring

ATLANTA and SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the OneMedForum in San Francisco, Sensiotec, a wireless digital technology leader, announces the expansion of its executive leadership team and discusses successful trials of the company's flagship product, Virtual Medical Assistant^® (VMA), with Tenet Healthcare and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Founded in 2008, Sensiotec is the pioneer in developing the world's first non-contact remote vital signs monitor, offering a non-invasive device with no electrodes or leads to measure patients' heart and respiration rate, bed occupancy, and movement. Year 2014 will mark the global availability of VMA to hospitals and healthcare providers. Over the past several years, Sensiotec has been laser focused on clinical trials and future applications.   

"The U.S. market for advanced patient monitoring systems more than doubled between 2007 and 2011. Today it represents one of the fastest growing market segments with a forecast of reaching $20.9 billion by 2016," explains Robert Arkin, CEO and founder of Sensiotec. "With half of all U.S. hospital beds completely unmonitored and many more under-monitored, Sensiotec developed VMA to fill this gap by providing a remote patient monitoring solution that will drastically increase remote monitoring for hospitals and healthcare providers.  The bottom line is an overall improvement in patient care standards."

During the past year, Arkin assembled a strong leadership team made up of:

• Fredrik Westin, president – Westin was the president of ERMI, Inc., where he successfully grew the company from local player to number two in its industry.
• Dr. Neal Templeton, chief medical officer -- Dr. Templeton founded and previously served as the chief medical officer of Optimal IMX, Inc. He also is a former president and chairman of the American College of Radiology. 
• Dr. Mary Ann Weitnauer, chief technology officer – As a nationally recognized expert on smart antenna technology, she is also a professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and the founder and director of the Smart Antenna Research Laboratory.
• Robert Rupard, chief operating officer -- Previously, Rupard served as chief operating officer and director of operations for Wings Air.

The company's advisory board includes:

• Vice Admiral Richard Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS -- 17th U.S. Surgeon General
• Dr. Bernard Harris -- Veteran astronaut; former American Telemedicine Association president
• Lt. Gen. E Ratcliffe Anderson, M.D.  -- 15th US Air Force Surgeon General; former dean of University of Missouri-Kansas City Medical School; former American Medical Association CEO
• Lt. Col. Shean Phelps, M.D., M.P.H. -- director, Health Systems Technology R&D, Georgia Tech Research Institute
• Dr. Kevin Maher -- director, Pediatric Cardiac Nanomedicine, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

"I'm very excited to be joining the Sensiotec team and aiding in the development and awareness of this innovative technology," explains Westin. "With VMA in place, we will significantly improve the patient experience and make healthcare delivery more efficient across the board."

Success to Date
Sensiotec's technology is already making an impact with a quality management initiative at Atlanta Medical Center (AMC) in a Level I trauma center operated by Tenet Healthcare. Key findings show that VMA captures cardiorespiratory data at a higher sampling rate than other monitoring devices. "This has valuable implications for improving the responsiveness of existing clinical decision support systems to better facilitate the practice of evidence-based medicine," states Dr. Jiten Chhabra, research scientist with the Georgia Tech's Interactive Media Technology Center. "The non-contact nature of VMA greatly increases patient adherence and clinician adoption."

Additionally, Sensiotec is currently working with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the Georgia Tech to develop a pediatric device that will drastically improve neonatal and infant care. "Our goal is to offer healthcare providers the ability to monitor patients effortlessly, both inside and outside of the hospital. We've found that non-contact and remote monitoring reduces risk and cost, enhances productivity, improves quality of care and increases patient satisfaction," Arkin concludes.

About Sensiotec
Sensiotec, a wireless digital technology leader, pioneered the world's first non-contact remote vital signs monitor, offering an invisible, non-wearable system to measure heart rate, respiration rate, bed occupancy, and movement—Virtual Medical Assistant® (VMA). VMA allows healthcare providers to access real-time and trend data which can be sent to any remote device. Implementing VMA into hospitals will reduce risk, cost, enhance productivity, improve the quality of patient care and increase patient satisfaction. Sensiotec received the Healthcare Heroes Award for Innovation for development of VMA. For more information, visit www.Sensiotec.com or www.twitter.com/Sensiotec. 

SOURCE Sensiotec