Much more than a nuisance, false alarms or ‘false positives’ on telemonitoring can be fatal. Human factors on receiving too many alarms, false positives, dead batteries, detached leads can all contribute. ‘Smart monitors’ that pick up multiple vital signs and algorithmically decide to alarm or not to alarm may not be a solution. This Boston Globe article concentrates on the hospital environment but has import for in-home devices as well. No easy solutions for alarm fatigue
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There’s an interesting comment on page 3 of this item “When technology is readily available…doctors end up ordering it for patients who might not benefit. “They feel a certain comfort level when they have a person on a monitor.””
I wonder how long it will be until home monitoring is so widely available that this is a problem. Or whether it became a problem in the course of the Whole System Demonstrator programme, given the ‘easy’ availability in that context.