Many years ago working in medical equipment maintenance at the QE hospital Birmingham, I found that the Apnoea monitors we had could detect the beat of my heart even when I was sat on the sensor. I have no idea what is on the market at the moment, but you could set limits for the "rate" of breathing etc. This had an alarm output. You may be able to adapt something for the purpose. The sensor was only a large plate capacitor, about 225 square cm. Best of luck. Geoff G.J.Harbach I.Eng MIED IIPEM Clinical Technologist Special Controls Service Manager West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre 91 Oak Tree Lane, Selly Oak Birmingham, West Midlands, B92 6JA Tel 0121 627 1627 Ext. 53238 This e-mail contains proprietary information some or all of which may be legally privileged. It is for the intended recipient only. If an addressing or transmission error has misdirected this e-mail, please notify the author by replying to this e-mail. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print, or rely on this e-mail. -----Original Message----- From: Friday Marcus (RFF) Medical Physics [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 07 April 2003 14:02 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Carer Alert We've received a referral for a client who will be moving into a bungalow. There will be a carer in the bungalow 24hrs a day. The client can operate a head switch but cannot vocalise. There will be one other resident in addition to the carer We feel that we need a client-operated alarm system that is more secure than a basic pager. Is there anything out there which addresses the following: 1) Be switch operated to trigger an alarm in the carers room and possibly elsewhere in the bungalow the carer may be. This could be a couple of strategically placed wall mounted alarms and perhaps a pager that the carer wears. 2) Normally closed connection on input so that the alarm triggers if the switch becomes disconnected. 3) If the system is wireless there will have to be regular communication between units to ascertain that they are still linked. 4) Battery failure indication. 5) The alarm should be sufficient to alert the carer but hopefully not disturb the other resident, particularly at night. 6) This may be too much to ask, but the client may be unable to operate the switch due to angina or heart attack. Therefore, may need monitoring so that if pulse and oxygen level reduces significantly this will also trigger the alarm as soon as possible. Should this scenario occur the alarm should probably route straight through to the emergency services rather than the carer alone. Even if technically feasible I'm not sue if the emergency services would permit this method. At present this appears to me to require a combination of nurse call system and if viable heart rate/oxygen level monitoring. The client is adamant that they want to live in the bungalow instead of hospital. Marcus. Marcus Friday Barnsley District General Hospital Medical Physics Department Gawber Road Barnsley S75 2EP Tel: 01226 730000 x2159