When mass casualty incidents strike, from active shooters or earthquakes, to multiple car pile ups, first responders can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer number of victims needing triage, treatment and transport to emergency medical facilities.

Monitoring large numbers of victims with varying levels of injury in a chaotic situation, can be extremely challenging, particularly in a critical response scenario when every second counts.

Working to provide first responders with technological aids to address these situations, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) developed an affordable, stick-on sensor that measures and tracks a patient’s vital signs to help first responders quickly triage individuals.

VitalTag is a low-cost, disposable suite of sensors that can detect, monitor and wirelessly transmit vital signs including blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate and other metrics such as blood oxygen levels (SpO₂), shock index and data from a single-lead electrocardiogram.

VitalTag adheres to a person’s sternum and connects seamlessly via Wi-Fi to securely transmit patient data to a mobile device or laptop in real time.

Responders can view each person’s medical status and location on an incident map, and should vital signs take a turn for the worse, the VitalTag can send an alert to first responders so the individual can receive emergent treatment.

This comprehensive overview of the entire site location and individuals involved, can enable emergency medical technicians and paramedics to tend to more patients faster, and armed with more detail critical information than ever before.

The patent-pending VitalTag was developed as part of the Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, a 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Recipient, broad view program titleed the ‘Responder Technology Alliance’ (RTA).

RTA, which is managed by PNNL, helps to advance the development of emerging technologies critical to the responder community.

(Learn More. PNNL helps to accelerate the development of and bring to market integrated technology solutions that will significantly improve the safety and capability of first responders. These videos tell the story of the envisioned ideas so that both first responders and potential industry partners can imagine the possibilities. Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – PNNL S&T and YouTube.)

“First responders told us they need a device to continuously monitor patients in demanding environmental conditions,” explains Grant Tietje, a former first responder who manages RTA at PNNL.

“VitalTag provides a wearable, cost-effective health monitoring solution.”

VitalTag consolidates expensive and bulky emergency response equipment into a wearable medical device that allows simultaneous monitoring of multiple patients, enhancing responders’ situational awareness and improving resource management.

PNNL data scientist Luke Gosink and his team worked to embed intelligence into the monitoring devices, developing machine learning algorithms to interact with sensor hardware and created an intuitive user interface that helps first responder do more.

“It is a resource multiplier,” said Gosink.

“Yes, ambulances have these types of equipment but usually only a few of each. With VitalTag, many more patients can be monitored simultaneously and continuously. More situational awareness, like that achieved with VitalTag, can result in better patient outcomes.”

PNNL is partnering with the occupational medicine company AnovaWorks to validate the efficacy of the prototype.

AnovaWorks, which operates employer-based health care clinics including one at PNNL, will conduct a limited evaluation assessment to compare and evaluate whether measurements from the monitoring sticker are consistent with the readings taken in a clinical setting using standard medical devices.

The data will support discussions with potential commercial partners on the feasibility and utility of the patient monitoring sticker. PNNL is looking for partners interested in licensing the patent-pending technology.

VitalTag’s technology is versatile and adaptable to a wide-range of applications including monitoring:

• Military warfighters
• Medically vulnerable populations during evacuations of healthcare facilities
• Veterinary medicine
• High-performance athletes during training

This is a fielded prototype technology that has not yet been approved by the FDA and is not commercially available.

Further details about the technology are available on the PNNL Available Technologies website or from PNNL’s commercialization manager Kannan Krishnaswami.

VitalTag Advantages Include:

• Securely detects and communicates vital sign data in real-time via a mobile app
• Allows simultaneous monitoring of multiple patients, enhancing situational awareness and improving resource management.
• Combines expensive/bulky medical devices into a single vital sign monitoring sticker.
• Enables continuity of care through triage, treatment, and transport.
• Improves operational efficiency, situational awareness, and patient outcome.
• Provides advanced incident and emergency management capabilities for first responders.

(Learn More. PNNL partnered with Continuum, a global design and innovation consultancy firm, to engage first responders and representatives from technology development firms nationwide. Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – PNNL S&T and YouTube.)

The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program is specifically designed to honor distinguished government and vendor solutions that deliver enhanced value, benefit and intelligence to end users in a variety of government, homeland security and public safety vertical markets.

Over 130 distinguished guests representing National, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms, gathered from across North America, Europe and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:

• The Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service (FPS)
• Argonne National Laboratory
• The Department of Homeland Security
• The Department of Justice
• The Security Exchange Commission Office of Personnel Management
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• Viasat, Hanwha Techwin, Lenel, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Verint, Canon U.S.A., BriefCam, Pivot3, Milestone Systems, Allied Universal, Ameristar Perimeter Security and More!

The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program highlighting the most cutting-edge and forward-thinking security solutions coming onto the market today, to ensure our readers have the information they need to stay ahead of the competition, and keep our Nation safe – one facility, street, and city at a time.

The 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program was Proudly Sponsored by ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Automatic Systems, Desktop Alert, and Royal Holdings Technologies.