Non–invasive vital signs monitoring in the adult population in clinical settings — current state of the art and beyond

Abstract

The aim is to delineate the current state of the art in non-contact red-green-blue (RGB) camera-based heart rate and rhythm monitoring in adult populations in the clinical setting. In addition, the challenges that still exist for more widespread use of this technology are outlined, as well as potential ways to overcome them. A search using Boolean operators was carried out in PubMed, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, CINAHL and Cochrane databases using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studies within hospital settings that extract heart rate data from videos of adult patients were identified and their successes and limitations were analysed from a clinical perspective. Fifteen studies were identified that fit the inclusion criteria. Many of these studies took place in emergency department settings, with the postoperative care unit being another environment that was investigated. Although good correlation between gold standard measurements and camera-based values were obtained overall, there are still challenges related to patient movement, changes in illumination and standardisation of techniques. This may be the reason that the use of this technology is not yet commonplace. Although a lot of valuable work has been performed highlighting the advantages and feasibility of using camera-based photoplethysmography to extract heart rate data in clinical scenarios, challenges still need to be overcome before these systems can become more mainstream in clinical practise. Therefore more research needs to be conducted in the eld of non-invasive vital signs monitoring in the clinical setting.