The FDA has given the green light for GE HealthCare’s Portrait Mobile monitoring solution, allowing clinicians to continuously track the vital signs of patients as they move around following surgery or discharge from the intensive care unit.

Portrait Mobile uses a dual-vector respiration rate measurement algorithm to collect information from electrodes on the patient and continuously identify breathing pattern changes. The company unveiled the technology in 2022 to identify signs of cardiorespiratory complications or infectious diseases developing in general ward and post-surgery patients.

Here are two ways Portrait Mobile may help reduce or prevent post-surgical complications:

• Allows movement to improve outcomes: Because abnormalities are common, patients are often required to stay in bed following surgery, limiting movement, which is essential for improving outcomes and reducing lengths of stay. Portrait Mobile’s wireless and wearable patient-worn sensors and smartphone-sized monitor continuously track patients, allowing them to move around freely.


• Detects decline in real time: The solution detects and communicates changes in respiration rate, oxygen saturation, and pulse rate without interruption, enabling doctors to observe patient decline as it happens, and initiate immediate interventions.

By being able to move around continuously, visitors can interact with patients more. And the reductions in length of stay and ICU visits, in turn, could reduce provider costs and elevate patient satisfaction.

Additionally, the routable communications architecture of the technology allows hospitals to leverage their existing network infrastructure, further decreasing installation and maintenance costs.