IBAS − Institute for Breathing and Sleep

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Breathing Rate Measurement in Respiratory patients

How fast a person is breathing, or the respiratory rate, is an important measurement in medicine. A fast respiratory rate is a sign that the body is under stress and can be an early warning that someone is critically unwell.

Doctors and nurses usually measure the respiratory rate by using a clock and manually counting a patient's breaths. However, this is not always practical, especially for monitoring breathing over a long period of time; or possible, such as when the patient is far away from a hospital in remote or rural settings.

Many devices have been invented to try and solve this problem. These use a variety of new technologies to automatically measure respiratory rate.

However, most of these devices have only been tested in healthy people, and we don't know how accurate they are in patients with significant medical illnesses. For example, these devices may be less effective in patients with respiratory conditions, who have lung damage and breathe very fast even when they aren't unwell. But because they often have difficulty with their breathing, it is even more important to be able to accurately measure the respiratory rate in these patients with long-term respiratory problems.

There is increasing interest in being able to provide medical care to patients at a distance, and in their own homes, including through video appointments. As a result, it is becoming more important to be able to accurately measure respiratory rate at a distance, especially for patients with respiratory conditions.

To help achieve this goal, this research project will assess the accuracy of a variety of new devices that measure respiratory rate at a distance in patients with chronic respiratory conditions. This study will be carried out during overnight tests in the Sleep Laboratory, a special part of the hospital that is already set up to very accurately monitor patients' breathing and vital signs. We hope to show that some of these devices can be equally good at accurately measuring respiratory rate at a distance. This result will show us which devices can be trusted to produce accurate results and guide us in designing subsequent initiatives to allow us to deliver more care to patients at a distance, and in their own homes.

Full Name

Assessing Accuracy of Novel Respiratory Rate Monitoring Devices in Patients with Chronic Respiratory Failure

Primary Investigator

Thomas Churchward

Stream

Respiratory > Motor Neurone Disease

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