A REVOLUTIONARY camera system will be tested on a cancer ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital to monitor patients’ health.

Oxford-based health monitoring company Oxehealth has developed a camera that can check a patient’s vital signs, including blood oxygen levels, through a complex system of radar technology.

The company, which was set up by Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUHT), hopes the new technology could be the future of medical practice.

Through monitoring breathing rates, the colour of a patient’s skin and other indicators, the camera can record a patient’s heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

The technology, called Oxecam, then sends the patient’s vital signs to the nurses’ station.

Now, after receiving £606,000 of funding from the Government, the company will be trialling the technology on a cancer ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington.

Chief nurse Catherine Stoddart said: “Nurses complete their routine monitoring for most hospital patients every four to six hours.

“Oxecam has the potential to help support hospital staff and greatly improve patient safety by providing around the clock monitoring of all five essential vital signs, thus allowing sudden and unexpected deterioration to be recognised early, and treated quickly.”

Oxehealth chief executive Jonathon Chevallier said the company was excited to see four years of research and development be put on a hospital ward.

He added: “For most patients who need their vital signs monitored constantly, they currently need to be attached to a number of machines with wires, which they will have to manoeuvre if they get out of bed.

“This can be incredibly uncomfortable, but with this new technology patients can move freely and everything is sent to the nurses and clinicians from the camera.

“This could very well be the future of medicine.”

Mr Chevallier said the technology would in no way replace nurses, but instead help them do their jobs more efficiently.

The camera can either send a patient’s vital signs to practitioners, or can also be activated to show images of the patient.

The Oxehealth chief executive said there should not be concern over invasions of privacy, as images can be turned off at the discretion of the health provider.

He added: “[The camera] only needs to send the statistics. One application for the camera could be that when there is a medical emergency, the camera can be activated and send images to the nurses station as, in a medical emergency, clinicians will want to see what’s going on immediately.

“The decision to use the camera is completely up to the provider, but it could be decided to use it with patients at higher risk.”