Continuous Temperature Measurement for Syndromic Surveillance

Is it possible to detect infection before it is clinically apparent? Fever is one indicator of infection. However, until recently, continuous temperature monitoring has not been feasible. With the advent of microelectronics, long battery life, and wireless transmission, it is now possible to continuously measure, record and report body temperature. For a period of 90 days, residents of a long-term care facility will have their body temperature monitored and then those measurements will then be compared against other available healthcare data such as other recorded vital signs, nursing notes, provider visits, antibiotics, and hospitalization records for correlation of underlying infection.