title: Contactless Patient Monitoring for General Wards: A Systematic Technology Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sudden, serious life-threatening situations happen even on general wards. Current technologies are working with sensors which are attached to every patient, which is a source of failures and false alarms. The goal of this review was to assess the state of the art of potential techniques for contactless patient monitoring in general wards.
  
  
  METHODS
  The MEDLINE database was used for literature retrieval.
  
  
  RESULTS
  453 unique references screened, 34 research articles met inclusion criteria. Ballistocardiography, Radar and Thermography technologies are the most widely tested techniques. The Majority of the studies are done in a laboratory setting. No study shows the feasibility of one contactless monitoring technology over the distance required for monitoring rooms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Today no technology is feasible. A combination of technologies may become feasible in 10 or more years, until then we have to think about ethical and privacy issues of these pervasive technologies.
authors: Department of Medical Informatics, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany.
authors: Tolga P
authors: TP
authors: Naziyok
authors: Department of Medical Informatics, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany.
authors: Atinkut A
authors: AA
authors: Zeleke
authors: Department of Medical Informatics, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany.
authors: Rainer
authors: R
authors: Röhrig
mesh_terms: D001450:Ballistocardiography; D020811:Biomedical Technology; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D010362:Patients' Rooms; D018907:Privacy; D011825:Radar; D013817:Thermography