A new technology that uses wi-fi router signals could soon help health professionals remotely monitor patient breathing and detect any irregularities.

The federal National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and FDA researchers used a deep learning algorithm (which falls under the machine learning subset of AI) to examine how body movements alter wi-fi router signals. They found that changes in the path radio frequencies taken from routers to computers or other devices could be used to detect various respiratory issues.

It’s not the first time scientists have studied wi-fi signals to monitor breathing and other vital signs. One team of researchers examined wi-fi monitoring in a 2020 paper, while others at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab published a study on how “radio-frequency re-identification” could be used to monitor individuals.

But new developments, which were detailed in a December 2022 IEEE Access paper, lay the groundwork for potential future remote respiratory monitoring technologies.

“All the ways we’re gathering the data is done on software on the access point (in this case, the router), which could be done by an app on a phone,” Jason Coder, who leads shared spectrum metrology research at the NIST, said in a statement. “This work tries to lay out how somebody can develop and test their own algorithm. This is a framework to help them get relevant information.”

NIST scientists, working with colleagues at the Office of Science and Engineering Labs in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, used a commercially available wi-fi router and receiver to measure the simulated breathing of a manikin (not to be confused with a mannequin) designed to replicate respiratory conditions—ranging from normal to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—and recorded the wi-fi signal data. Keep reading here.—SY

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We’ve all heard the phrase “innovate or die.” But when it comes to healthcare, a number of systems are taking a slightly different approach; call it “innovate to live.”

Health systems have set up innovation centers to find the next great idea that will improve care, cut costs, and maybe even generate some revenue. The structures and budgets of innovation centers can vary widely, but they generally have for the most part, they all have a dedicated staff to help develop and test new products and services.

“This is distinct from [general] staff doing innovation off the side of their desk with no additional training or support, which is probably the most common model,” Onil Bhattacharyya, a physician at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, told Healthcare Brew.

At least 110 of these centers have been set up by health systems across the US, according to the Journal of Medical Internet Research, up from about 25 innovation centers operating a decade ago, said Bhattacharyya.

In a peer-reviewed paper published in February 2022, Bhattacharyya and his co-authors attributed the rise of innovation centers to value-based payment reforms “creating incentives to experiment with ways to deliver care that are independent of current processes.”

Generally speaking, a health system’s return on its investment comes in two forms: cost savings, and less commonly, revenue. “Innovation centers typically do not make money, but the ones that do either own a share in a spin-off company, or they launch companies that generate revenue,” Bhattacharyya said.

For example, the innovation center at Mount Sinai Health System in New York helped to develop technology that uses artificial intelligence to aid doctors in improving cancer diagnoses and treatment through an analysis of patient risks. From there, Mount Sinai spun out a company, PreciseDx, to further develop the AI. Keep reading here.—MS

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: Pollution from gas stoves is responsible for about one in eight cases of childhood asthma in the US, according to a new study. (The Guardian)

Quote: “Our collective challenge in the short term is to free up some time for doctors to take care of patients...both in private practice and at hospital.”—France’s President Emmanuel Macron on “overhauling” the country’s health system (US News & World Report)

Read: Self-immolation, or the act of deliberately setting oneself on fire, became popular in Tunisia after the country’s 2010 revolution. Those cases, at one point, made up a fifth of the patients at the premier burn treatment hospital in Ben Arous, near the Tunisian capital. (the New York Times)

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