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The National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore is set to expand the use of wearable technology after a successful pilot found that continuous smartwatch-based monitoring could identify changes in patients' vital signs up to two hours earlier than routine manual observations, demonstrating its potential to allow clinicians to respond sooner, reduce disruptions to recovering patients, and enable nurses to spend more time on other aspects of patient care that require their clinical judgement.
Following the month-long pilot, which concluded in June, NUH is now working towards having up to 10 per cent of suitable inpatient vital signs monitoring be supported by wearable technology over the coming year.
The pilot was led by the NUH Department of Surgery in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team comprising surgical ward nurses, operations staff, and researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine).
Participants wore a smartwatch equipped with Health Sciences Authority (HSA)-approved vital signs monitoring capabilities that continuously monitored patients' blood pressure, pulse rate, and blood oxygen saturation.
The pilot marks the first step in NUH's broader efforts to integrate wearable technology into inpatient care. As the programme expands, the hospital will continue evaluating how the technology can be safely introduced for other suitable patient groups to improve both patient experience and support more efficient care delivery.
