Representational image.

Researchers at MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a wireless device that allows healthcare professionals to monitor patients remotely.

Reports say the device can monitor a patientโ€™s breathing, movement and sleep patterns using wireless signals.

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This week, a clinical team in Boston used the device to monitor a COVID-19 patient remotely, CSAIL said on Tuesday.

Developed by MIT professor Dina Katabi and her research group at CSAIL, the device called โ€œEmeraldโ€ is a WiFi-like box that analyses the wireless signals in the environment using artificial intelligence (AI) to infer peopleโ€™s vital signs, sleep, and movement.

After obtaining consent, Heritage Assisted Living in the Boston suburb of Framingham installed Emerald in the patientโ€™s room, where it non-invasively monitors her health and reports the data to her doctor, Ipsit Vahia.

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Sitting in his home, Vahia can remotely track the patientโ€™s progress by looking at metrics like breathing and walking speed, CSAIL said.

Specifically, Emerald data showed that the patientโ€™s initial breathing rate had gone down from 23 to 18 breaths per minute โ€” much closer to the patientโ€™s baseline.

The system also showed that the patientโ€™s sleep quality improved, and that she was able to walk more quickly around her apartment as she recovered.

โ€œWhen doctors have to interact directly with patients to conduct exams or monitor vital signs, each step along the way represents an increased risk that they will get infected,โ€ said Vahia, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

โ€œGiven how Emerald can generate important health data without any patient contact, it could minimise the risk that doctors and nurses will catch the disease from their patients.โ€

Emerald could also help detect other respiratory problems that would otherwise go unnoticed.