Physiological signs can be remotely observed from the physiological and physical effects caused by a cardiorespiratory activity. A wide range of research on remote cardiorespiratory monitoring systems has been done using different methods, including methods based on Doppler effect, thermal imaging, and video camera imaging. The aim of this paper was to review and compare the newest and most promising of such remote measuring methods, introducing their merits and limitations under different circumstances. In addition, this paper summarizes the performance of these methods in a table regarding the noise artifacts, subject movement, the number of regions of interest, generalization to multiple subjects, detection range (distance), biological effects, and cost. This is a thorough general overview of the remote measurement of cardiorespiratory methods.

The objective of this study was to design a non-invasive system for the observation of respiratory rates and detection of apnoea using analysis of real time image sequences captured in any given sleep position and under any light conditions (even in dark environments). A Microsoft Kinect sensor was used to visualize the variations in the thorax and abdomen from the respiratory rhythm. These variations were magnified, analyzed and detected at a distance of 2.5 m from the subject. A modified motion magnification system and frame subtraction technique were used to identify breathing movements by detecting rapid motion areas in the magnified frame sequences. The experimental results on a set of video data from five subjects (3 h for each subject) showed that our monitoring system can accurately measure respiratory rate and therefore detect apnoea in infants and young children. The proposed system is feasible, accurate, safe and low computational complexity, making it an efficient alternative for non-contact home sleep monitoring systems and advancing health care applications.

Infants with fragile skin are patients who would benefit from non-contact vital sign monitoring due to the avoidance of potentially harmful adhesive electrodes and cables. Non-contact vital signs monitoring has been studied in clinical settings in recent decades. However, studies on infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are still limited. Therefore, we conducted a single-center study to remotely monitor the heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) of seven infants in NICU using a digital camera. The region of interest (ROI) was automatically selected using a convolutional neural network and signal decomposition was used to minimize the noise artefacts. The experimental results have been validated with the reference data obtained from an ECG monitor. They showed a strong correlation using the Pearson correlation coefficients (PCC) of 0.9864 and 0.9453 for HR and RR, respectively, and a lower error rate with RMSE 2.23 beats/min and 2.69 breaths/min between measured data and reference data. A Bland–Altman analysis of the data also presented a close correlation between measured data and reference data for both HR and RR. Therefore, this technique may be applicable in clinical environments as an economical, non-contact, and easily deployable monitoring system, and it also represents a potential application in home health monitoring.

Background: Nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) who care for dying infants and their families say they do not necessarily have the expertise or the specific training to provide quality end-of-life-care (EOLC). Purpose: The purpose of this review was to critically appraise the existing qualitative literature regarding nurses' experiences when caring for infants during end of life in the NICU and to identify barriers and enablers to provide quality EOLC. Search Strategy: A literature search was conducted using CINAHL and OVID databases. Studies that explored nurses' experiences when caring for infants who were dying or when lifesaving care was withdrawn were retrieved and 15 studies were thematically analyzed. Results: Five major themes emerged: advocating for the dying infant, building close relationships with the family, providing an appropriate care environment, nurses' emotional responses to dying or death, and professional inadequacy in EOLC. Implications for Practice: Nurses face multiple challenges when providing EOLC including moral dilemmas and feelings of professional inadequacy. Avoidance was a common strategy used by nurses to cope with the stress associated with EOLC. Managers can foster quality EOLC by implementing education sessions about infant mortality, EOLC, advocacy, team communication, and self-care practices. Implications for Research: Research could evaluate the effectiveness of EOLC education sessions to build nurses' competence and confidence in advocacy and EOLC clinical skills.