Sepsis kills. According to the CDC, nearly any infection can trigger the septic response that can rapidly degrade organ functions to the point of failure. Of the 1.7 million U.S. adults who develop sepsis yearly, more than 350,000 die in the hospital or hospice care. El Camino Health, a Silicon Valley healthcare system, recently announced it is using Flosonics Medical‘s FDA-cleared FloPatch wireless Doppler ultrasound sensor to manage sepsis treatment.
Standard treatment for sepsis starts with antibiotics and IV fluids. The greatest danger in treating sepsis is when excess IV fluids themselves cause damage that can escalate rapidly. According to an El Camino news release, standard tools that measure patients’ fluid response are unwieldy and take considerable time to use. Healthcare professionals can deploy the FloPatch in less than one minute by placing it on the patient’s neck over the carotid artery. The FloPatch continuously measures carotid artery blood flow and transmits the sensor data to an iOS app. According to El Camino Health, the FloPatch is faster and more accurate than conventional tools.
According to a study cited by El Camino Health and authored primarily by Flosonics Medical personnel, an emergency department that used FloPatch found that for every 10 FloPatch patient assessments, four to five ED patients avoided life-threatening excess IV fluids. The key takeaway is that with the FloPatch, hospital personnel can manage IV fluid therapy better with superior patient outcomes. Compared to conventional IV fluid monitoring, FloPatch also saves money. The FloPatch is a pretty niche device and clearly clinical, but El Camino’s adoption of wireless digital sensing technology is notable.
