May 31, 2012 | 12:01 pm

Defense System Converted To Medical Device That Saves Lives

Posted by Jared Baker

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Researchers from Bar Ilan University in Israel are developing a system to monitor patients on ventilators, alerting doctors and nurses if something goes wrong.

The technology comes from research originally intended for the military, designed to monitor complex systems in Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) and assist operators in determining if sensors were malfunctioning.  Haaretz reports (translation courtesy No Camels):

Lead researcher and head of the robotics lab at Bar Ilan, Professor Gal Kaminka, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “There are no simple malfunctions. There are many types of failures that require a human being present to look at the dashboard and see, for example, that the engine is strained or the speed and altitude are decreasing. The Ministry of Defense contacted us and asked if there is a way to create detectors that can automatically alert in case something is not functioning as it should.”

...

“Then, Dr. Haim Berkenstadt who is an anesthesiologist from Sheba Hospital, approached us,” tells Dr. Kaminka. “Apparently one of the problems that anesthetists have is to monitor the patient during surgery, recovery room or intensive care and understand that something is unusual.”

Read the rest here, or the complete story in Hebrew here.