TORONTO– FloPatch, a wearable ultrasound device, is in use in two critical care units at St. Michael’s Hospital.
The wireless, wearable Doppler ultrasound patch from Flosonics Medical enables real-time blood-flow assessments to help guide fluid resuscitation in critically ill patients, including those with sepsis and septic shock. Sepsis is the third most common cause of death in U.S. hospitals and affects 1.7 million people nationwide each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Our critical care teams are always looking for ways to further improve their capabilities and efficiency and ultimately drive greater patient safety,” said Alberto Goffi, MD, St. Michael’s intensivist and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Medicine and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine (IDCCM). Dr. Goffi is co-author, alongside collaborators from Italy and Flosonics co-founders Drs. Jon-Emile Kenny and Joseph Eibl, of a paper describing the technology’s application in the April 2024 edition of the prestigious journal CHEST.
FloPatch has both Health Canada and FDA clearance. The device adheres to a patient’s neck over the carotid artery. It immediately starts capturing real-time blood flow data for each heartbeat. This data is then wirelessly sent to a secure iOS app for healthcare providers, which not only displays real-time Doppler data but also uses advanced analytics to break down each heartbeat into key metrics. Such data enables informed, time-sensitive decisions at the bedside, a level of precision that is indispensable in complex and urgent medical scenarios like sepsis management.
The CHEST study supports the growing literature suggesting the important role of wearable devices for non-invasive, continuous, personalized monitoring.
