A wireless heart-rate cap looked feasible, but this was not an accuracy test
Staff saw heart rate within 60 seconds in 35/51 cases, but 11/62 recordings were unavailable. An FDA Class 3 cap-label recall adds a separate check.
The hot take
A device can fit the workflow and still leave its accuracy question unanswered.
A prospective study at two UK tertiary centers enrolled 62 infants born from 22+0 through 36+6 weeks and added a forehead photoplethysmography cap to routine heart-rate monitoring. The useful signal is operational: among 51 infants with analyzable downloaded data, staff said a numeric heart rate appeared within 60 seconds in 35. This study did not test whether those values agreed with ECG.
What was studied
The investigators recruited a convenience sample between January 2022 and August 2023. The device was deployed after 43 cesarean births, 9 vaginal births, and during postnatal care for 10 NICU infants, with a planned minimum duration of 20 minutes. Routine monitoring and stabilization continued. The analyzed infants had a median gestational age of 33+5 weeks and median birth weight of 1860 g.
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