New device at Mount Sinai Hospital facilitates walking test for pulmonary rehab patients
Robert Primeau is walking down the hallway at Mount Sinai Hospital, but this is more than a casual stroll. Accompanied by a Respiratory Therapist, Mr. Primeau is digitally transmitting information about his vital signs that will shape the course of his treatment.
“Four minutes to go!” Martin Bienvenue, the Respiratory Therapist, says with encouragement.
Mr. Primeau, who has emphysema, is wearing a sensor on his index finger that is sending Mr. Bienvenue a precise digital readout of his pulse and oxygen levels—data that will help guide Mount Sinai’s medical team in supporting Mr. Primeau’s rehabilitation and recovery.
The hallway amble is known as a six-minute walk test, a standard assessment in respiratory therapy to gauge how patients with lung conditions respond to exercise. Until this fall, patients undergoing the test were connected to a cable, and respiratory therapists had to write down vital sign measurements by hand on paper.
The new device, acquired with the support of the Mount Sinai Foundation, transmits the data directly into an electronic tablet held by the therapist. Without the need to document information on paper, they can keep their eyes on the patient and watch for clinical indicators such as their breathing cadence, colouring, or even whether they’re straining their neck muscles to breathe.
“Our attention is focused more on the patient’s condition than on the data,” Mr. Bienvenue says.
The wireless device—called the Vyntus Walk—is an example of how technological innovation is delivering the most optimal care to patients in our CIUSSS (a second Vyntus Walk is in use at the JGH Respiratory Physiology lab). Eventually, the results from the walk test will be entered into the Connected Health Record (CHR), the new CIUSSS platform that provides access to a single digital patient record in all 34 facilities of our network.
These innovations are having an impact that extend beyond our CIUSSS. Mount Sinai Hospital treats patients referred by hospitals across the Montreal metropolitan region, so this device is serving a large basin of people who suffer from respiratory illnesses such as asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“It’s a very useful tool,” says Dr. Suzanne Levitz, Medical Director and Associate Director of Professional Services of our CIUSSS, and a long-time physician at Mount Sinai. “We can highlight the information we want to get from it, so we can get a more complete report and more information than we did before.”
“There’s a lot of potential to help us in many, many ways.”
Dr. Suzanne Levitz
Respiratory Therapists at Mount Sinai use the device multiple times to evaluate the progress of patients enrolled in the three-week Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at the Côte-Saint-Luc facility. During patients’ stay, the team also provides education, supervision and coaching on subjects such as how to manage their breathing, use medication devices like puffers, walk up stairs, lift objects or quit smoking.
Mr. Bienvenue, who has been at Mount Sinai for 25 years, enjoys the satisfaction of seeing patients make headway during their stay. “I feel like I’m giving patients back some of their autonomy. I can have a positive impact on their lives, in a way that gives concrete results,” he says. “It’s gratifying.”
That attitude is what makes members of the Respiratory Therapy team excel, says Angie Spiropoulos, Chief of Respiratory Therapy, Respiratory Physiology and the Sleep Lab.
“They have the expertise to care for the most vulnerable patients,” says Ms. Spiropoulos, who also oversees Respiratory Therapy at the JGH. “They listen and offer encouragement, one on one, with love and compassion. Patients feel listened to and cared for.”
“I’m so proud of them,” she says, “and how they have evolved as a team.”
