EarlySense, a Waltham, Mass-based manufacturer of contact-free monitoring solutions, has received clearance from FDA to market its Chair Sensor in the United States. The Chair Sensor continuously monitors patient’s heart rate, respiratory rate and movement. According to EarlySense, it is the first contact-free sensor for vital signs in a chair.

While ambulating patients from bed to chair improves outcomes, the company says, there was no previous automatic contact-free solution for keeping patients safe in their chairs.

According to Avner Halperin, CEO of EarlySense, “Hospitals have shown us that they value smart beds. Now for the first time they can get ‘smart chairs.’ In addition, with a chair sensor, we believe that a number of other clinical environments will open up to the EarlySense System, such as emergency departments, outpatient clinics, and waiting areas where concern around patients may exist and today there is no practical way to monitor patients.”

For more information on the chair sensor, visit the EarlySense website.