Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2021 - 52

SPINOFF
hen astronauts go on
spacewalks, their spacesuits
contain numerous sensors
that monitor body temperature,
heart rate, how
much they sweat, and more.
That data is automatically
sent to NASA and distributed
to the flight surgeon, biomedical
engineers, and others.
The ground-based crew uses
that information to guide its
support efforts - maybe a
reminder to drink some
water to avoid dehydration or
take a short break to lower
heart rate. The same remote
health monitoring is now
used on this planet in a system
called Ejenta.
W
The customizable operating
system is tailored to the individual,
creating an intelligent agent based on
each patient's profile. Building on algorithms
and machine learning developed
by NASA, the artificial intelligence system
can learn about the patient through
data from wearable and wireless devices,
adding to medical records.
The cloud-based program employs
off-the-shelf health and fitness monitoring
devices to collect important health
metrics. It then saves, analyzes, reports
on, and distributes information to the
patient and the entire medical team. An
individual health plan determines what's
monitored and how that data is reported
and distributed. As with a spacewalk, the
data is compared to target metrics to
identify progress or issues.
The nurses and doctors, like a NASA
ground crew, receive reports that include
risk assessments and the steps necessary
to mitigate any minor issue before it
becomes a serious problem. The patient
might get a reminder to take medication
at a specific time or perform daily physical
therapy exercises. Ejenta can also
integrate chart notes, clinical records,
lab results, and more to create a compre52
Cov
hensive
medical history that will reduce
false alarms and miscommunication.
Ejenta uses a Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular
connection to transmit health
measurements to the custom smartphone
monitoring app. The data is
automatically sent via an encrypted
connection to the individual's intelligent
agent. That ongoing flow of information
re places an office visit with a
phone call or video visit to discuss
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring
successfully commercialized NASA technology. This
commercialization has contributed to the development
of products and services in the fields of health and
medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety,
computer technology, and environmental resources.
Artificial Intelligence for Astronauts Monitors Patients at Home
Software that monitors astronaut health in space now monitors high-risk patients at home.
recent vital signs. And
patients can check on their
performance against im -
provement benchmarks at
any time.
Multiple studies show the
Collecting, sorting, and distributing data from the space station to those at NASA
who need it inspired the agency to automate the process. Called Brahms, the software
is under an exclusive license to Ejenta for the collection and distribution of
patient data according to a tailored remote monitoring plan. (Credit: NASA)
system's potential benefits
for treating serious health
conditions such as heart failure
and high-risk pregnancies.
Doctors were able to
catch problems early before
they reached a crisis that
required a hospital stay. For
example, pregnant women
were less likely to develop
gestational diabetes and had
fewer pre-term births and Csections.
Patients can stay
healthy at home, reducing
the number of times they go
into the emergency room or the hospital
for critical events.
Maarten Sierhuis, Ejenta's chief technical
officer, helped develop the programming
that collects, evaluates, and
distributes data when he worked at
NASA's Ames Research Center. That
work evolved into NASA's Orbital Com -
munications Adapter Monitoring Sys -
tem, which has been in use since 2008.
Ejenta negotiated an exclusive worldwide
license for the software, which
NASA called Brahms, and for all related
applications developed by the agency
between 2000 and 2012. The San
Francisco-based company is the sole distributor
of the program for commercial,
government,
research, and academic
Remote patient monitoring allows care providers
and patients to access comprehensive health
information at any time. Ejenta developed a proprietary
system leveraging NASA technology to
do just that. The patient app can access records
and remind users to do anything from exercising
to taking medication on a schedule. (Credit:
NataliaDeriabina/Getty Images)
www.techbriefs.com
ToC
use outside the agency.
Many people aren't aware of Ejenta
because the program is incorporated
into the healthcare systems that use it.
Some of the largest healthcare providers
in the U.S. use Ejenta to monitor highrisk
conditions when a care plan
requires the medical team to monitor
multiple data points.
Visit https://spinoff.nasa.gov/astronautremote-health-monitoring.
Tech
Briefs, December 2021
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/astronautremote-health-monitoring http://www.techbriefs.com http://info.hotims.com/79420-923
Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2021
