Vital signs in the consultation
Measurements are taken at home, in the practice or at the pharmacy. The reading appears in the patient’s record without anyone typing it in. For some readings a camera is enough.
Four things that explain it
The measuring devices carry their own mobile connection. No smartphone, no app, no account with the device manufacturer.
A facial scan through the camera returns heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate and blood pressure.
Patients measure themselves, or an assistant measures on site. All three work.
Neither is part of the standard scope. We enable them after a short conversation.
Two routes to a reading
The first route runs through a device. Blood pressure, oxygen saturation, weight or temperature are measured, and the reading travels into the record by itself.
The second route needs no device at all. A camera is enough; the rest is computation.
Both routes end in the same place: the patient’s record, visible at the next consultation.
Why no smartphone is needed
The devices have their own mobile connection built in. They transmit directly, with no app, no pairing and no account with the device manufacturer. Whoever measures presses one button, nothing more.
This is not a technical detail. It decides whether an 82-year-old patient gets her blood pressure from the living room to the practice, or not. Devices that first demand an app and a pairing step reliably fail at this.
Devices that only speak Bluetooth can be connected through a small gateway. It sits in the home or the treatment room and pairs itself.
What can be measured
- Blood pressure, systolic and diastolic, with pulse
- Oxygen saturation, with a fingertip pulse oximeter
- Weight
- Body temperature, with an infrared thermometer
- Blood glucose, uric acid, cholesterol and beta-ketone, all four from the same multimeter
Further devices can be added, an ECG for instance, or a scale that measures body composition. Tell us what you need.
Measuring with the camera
For some readings the camera of a smartphone, tablet or computer is enough. The patient holds still for one minute while the software reads the pulse from minute colour changes in the skin, and derives further values from it.
It records heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults. The analysis runs on the device itself. No video is transmitted and none is stored.
The software used carries a CE mark as a class IIa medical device.
This function is not active in every account. We enable it on request.
Who measures
At home the patient measures herself. The record then keeps growing between appointments, and at the next consultation the practitioner sees a series rather than a single value.
In the practice the assistant measures, as always, except that nobody has to copy the number down.
At the pharmacy the staff measures as part of assisted telemedicine. For everyone who cannot or does not want to measure at home and still needs no appointment at a practice.
The three routes do not exclude one another. Someone who measures at home between appointments is still measured at the practice.
How the devices are set up
We take care of the setup. MEDITyme configures the devices, after which they appear in the patient record and deliver their readings there.
In the practice and at the pharmacy there is nothing to install and nothing to pair. The device arrives ready to use.
Where the readings live
The readings sit in the patient documentation of the platform, in German data centres, under the same rules as the rest of the consultation.
This is not the electronic patient record of the statutory health insurers. That is a different thing, and it is not replaced here.
Getting it enabled
Neither the devices nor the camera measurement are active in every account. Write to us about what you want to measure and where. We enable the function and set up the devices.