Continuous monitoring of ambulatory patients within hospital settings remains a major challenge in modern healthcare. This study presents an objective and quantitative evaluation of the feasibility of using off-the-shelf wearable devices for real-time clinical event monitoring and patient localization in hospital environments. We developed and assessed an integrated system combining two consumer-grade smartwatch models from a single manufacturer (Garmin Vivoactive 5 and Venu Sq 2) with smartphones to monitor heart rate and patient location. System performance was quantitatively evaluated in 10 healthy volunteers across multiple hospital scenarios. Key findings include: tachycardia detection delays with a median of 3 min 49 s compared to medical-grade electrocardiogram; indoor location accuracy with median errors of 3.9 m (longitude) and 3.0 m (latitude); a systematic altitude error of approximately 40 m; and linear staff response times increasing by 0.78 s per meter of distance. Signal loss was detected on average 3 min and 3 s after device removal, with one notification failure observed among 10 test conditions. These quantitative performance metrics represent the first observational assessment of integrating consumer-grade wearables into hospital monitoring systems designed to assist previously unmonitored patients during emergencies. Although current consumer devices have limitations compared with medical-grade equipment, this foundational evaluation demonstrates the feasibility of such systems and establishes performance benchmarks for scalable, low-cost patient monitoring solutions in modern healthcare settings.
Fukuyama et al. (Thu,) studied this question.