When Every Beep Matters: Our Mission to Ease Alarm Fatigue

When Every Beep Matters: Our Mission to Ease Alarm Fatigue

As we’ve spent time on the floor listening to nurses and doctors, one message rang clear: accurate, reliable, and comfortable monitoring isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s essential. Yet too often, existing systems fall short. False alarms interrupt assessments, inaccurate readings force reboot after reboot, and tangled cables strip patients of dignity. One nurse told us, “Sometimes you’re supposed to assess the patient—not the numbers. The monitor says one thing, but you look at them and they’re fine. You have to stop, reboot, reconnect—all while managing four patients.” That sense of frustration and divided attention drives us to do better.

Alarm fatigue isn’t just a checkbox in a report; it’s a real burden that erodes trust and disrupts care. Nurses shared how they dread each new beep: they can’t silence critical warnings, yet they can’t fully trust the alarms either. “You don’t want to turn off the alarms, but you also don’t trust them anymore. You have to check every alarm, even when it’s usually false,” one clinician explained. Those perpetual interruptions not only heighten patient anxiety but also steal precious seconds when true emergencies arise.

We’ve also witnessed how cumbersome cables turn simple needs—eating, repositioning, using the restroom—into logistical hurdles. Patients grow frustrated when they must wait for someone to disconnect leads, and nurses feel the strain of constant reattachments. That cycle undermines both patient dignity and caregiver efficiency.

The stakes become even higher in critical moments. One doctor recounted a terrifying scenario: “We couldn’t get an oxygen reading on a patient struggling to breathe—not on the finger, ear, or forehead. We had to intubate without knowing their O₂ level and draw blood just to get a basic reading.” In the face of life-or-death decisions, we recognized that unreliable sensors and alarm systems do more than annoy—they can cost lives.

That’s why we’re committed to designing wireless, comfortable monitors that stay in place, deliver dependable readings, and sound alarms only when action is truly required. By partnering closely with clinicians, we’ve developed prototypes that proactively filter out false positives, seamlessly integrate into electronic medical records, and free nurses to focus on the patient—not the machine.

While our long-term focus remains the NICU, these insights have opened our eyes to opportunities across a range of care settings—from general wards to ketamine clinics—where accurate, patient-friendly monitoring can transform the experience for both caregivers and those in their care. Together, we can turn every beep into a meaningful alert, every sensor into a source of confidence, and every shift into an opportunity for truly compassionate, uninterrupted care.

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