Oxford University to Reduce Hospital Attendance, Healthcare Costs and Improve Tests’ Results thanks to ArangoDB

The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is a standard method for measuring exercise capacity in patients with cardiopulmonary disease such as pulmonary hypertension (PHT). The 6MWT measures how far a patient can walk in 6 minutes. By assessing patients’ ability to exercise, the 6MWT provides a global assessment of respiratory, cardiovascular, cognitive and neuromuscular function.

The test is usually performed in hospital, by walking along a hospital corridor, where many factors on the day of the test can affect patients’ performance, including tiredness, unfamiliarity with the environment or anxiety. The test typically requires 2 physiologists to monitor the distance walked by the patient, their oxygen saturations by pulse oximetry, and to record symptoms felt during the test.

The University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Oxford University NHS Trust, is developing a mobile-phone based system that would allow patients to perform their test at home.

The system includes a mobile phone “app” that guides patients through the test, both indoors or outdoors. In the outdoor scenario, the app makes use of GPS to track the user’s position. In the indoor scenario it uses the phone’s accelerometer to count the number of laps over a fixed-length walkway.

Undertaking a 6MWT test within the patient’s home environment, using mobile technology to transmit the results via a software application on a mobile phone is appealing as it is likely to be more acceptable to the patient, may provide more consistent and functionally relevant data, and may reduce hospital attendances and healthcare costs. By utilizing biometric collection devices such as a pulse oximeter monitor with Bluetooth capability, telehealth can be used to capture the oxygen saturation levels in the blood from patients and transmit them to a secure server, allowing them to be reviewed by cardiologists and other healthcare professionals.