Vital Insights: How Radar-Based Monitoring Can Enhance Symptom Management in Palliative Care

Context Palliative care prioritizes patients’ quality of life with symptom management, personal care, and minimal technology use to respect privacy. However, assessing symptoms, particularly for patients near the end of life who often are unable to communicate, mostly depends on observation by healthcare providers, which may lack completeness and objectivity.

Non-invasive radar-based monitoring of heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) offers potential for detecting symptoms without compromising palliative care principles.

We used a multi-radar system placed under patients’ mattresses to continuously monitor HRs and RRs in a palliative care ward by tracking body surface movement. Data on symptom burden, including timing and severity, were collected via patient self-reports (MIDOS2) and staff observations (HOPE). The relationship between radar-derived vital signs and distress-related symptom burden changes over hours, as well as medication effects following their peak impact, was analyzed using various statistical methods.

Our findings show that HR and RR increase over the course of hours during symptom exacerbation (HR: +2.8 bpm, RR: +0.7 brpm) and decrease with amelioration (HR: –1.8 bpm, RR: –0.2 brpm), with a significant relationship observed between HR and symptom exacerbation (p=0.002). Additionally, HR trends suggested variability potentially related to medication effects, warranting further study.

Radar-based monitoring holds promise for burden-free vital sign monitoring in palliative care and assisting healthcare professionals in symptom detection. However, physical activity and environmental factors may affect measurements and medication effects require further investigation. Additional research is needed to refine this technology for clinical use. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funding Statement The study is part of the research project GUARDIAN which was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – SFB 1483 – Project-ID 442419336, EmpkinS. Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics committee of University Hospital Erlangen (479_20 B) gave ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data Availability The data that support the findings of this study are not openly available due to reasons of privacy and sensitivity and are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.