The First Response Monitor is a nose clip that measures and monitors vital signs of multiple trauma patients in disasters and battlefield situations.

Developed by Cambridge Design Partnership (United Kingdom), the First Response Monitor clips onto a patient’s nose and monitors both breathing and heart rate, with visual indication of both parameters. The lightweight, robust, and low-cost biometric device not only monitors the patients in real time but also collects and transmits the data wirelessly, enabling first responders to care for a greater number of casualties and provide more effective casualty treatment and improved patient outcomes.

The data, transmitted using Bluetooth to a smartphone app or tablet, enables evaluation of multiple patient triage sorting and prioritization based on situational awareness across the entire group, as well as enabling caregivers to understand how each patient’s condition changes over time. Although the device was primarily designed for monitoring of mass casualty incidents, it has applications in many other fields, such as wellness monitoring, sports training and performance monitoring, and can also provide an inexpensive solution for low resource healthcare settings.

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