UK-based wireless body area monitoring company Toumaz has begun a clinical trial of its peel-and-stick body monitoring system, Sensium, at London's St. Mary's Hospital. The trial is sponsored by Toumaz's U.S. partner CareFusion.

Toumaz's Sensium wireless band-aids continuously monitor patients' vital signs, including skin temperature, heart rate and respiration.

Toumaz founder Chris Toumazou described the company's plans in a recent press release: “The business case is simple: by using the disposable digital plaster to monitor on a 24-7 basis, critical medical information can be monitored that would not otherwise have been detected. This preventative form of medicine will mean that less people could require intensive care in the future, saving lives and at the same time providing greater efficiencies and cost savings to the NHS. Once proven in a hospital setting then the digital plaster can be deployed in the home in the same way.”

Toumazou told UK publication Growth Company Investor that the clinical trial at St. Mary's should be completed by the first quarter of next year and that the trial "opens the door to some very exciting applications of our technology in clinical environments next year."

Dr. Stephen Brett, a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, who is leading the trial, explained the company's benefit to patients in the press release: “This technology has the potential to improve the capturing of patient’s vital signs within all areas of the hospital – enabling key physiological data to be acquired at an increased frequency, with the minimum of inconvenience to patients, and without the requirement to connect patients to immobile pieces of equipment. This raises the possibility of technology: improving hospital safety systems; enhancing the efficiency of adding vital sign data to patient records: and potentially freeing valuable nursing staff time for other patient care responsibilities.”

For more about the trial, including more technical info about the Sensium technology, read the company's full press release here.