Advancing Neonatal Care: A Deep Learning Approach for Non-Contact Heart Rate Monitoring

Alex Grafton, Alejandra Castelblanco*, Joana M. Warnecke, Lynn Thomson, Benjamin Schubert, Anne Hilgendorff, Julia A. Schnabel, Joan Lasenby, Kathryn Beardsall

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference paperpeer-review

Abstract

Heart rate is an important indicator of newborn health status. Conventional wired heart rate monitoring is affected by motion, can limit parental bonding and is prone to damage the fragile newborn skin. Video-based heart rate monitoring in adults has shown potential for the assessment of cardiac functions in optimal acquisition conditions. However, automated methods adapted for neonates, trained with limited sample sizes and capable of handling occlusions and variable illumination, still need to be explored. This work proposes a new deep-learning pipeline for video-based neonatal heart rate measurement, integrating color and infrared signals from multiple neonatal body regions. We train deep learning models for pose estimation and heart rate detection in a pilot cohort of five neonates recorded in the clinic for up to 60 minutes. Our methods show generalization in a leave-one-out cross-validation scheme; the newborn pose estimation model presents high performance (average precision=0.85±0.07), while the heart rate detection model achieves a mean absolute error of 3.83±1.22 beats per minute compared to the electrocardiogram heart rate. Automated video-based heart rate measurement could provide a non-contact, low-cost complement to current HR monitoring technologies in the clinic or outpatient settings.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2024 IEEE International Conference on E-Health Networking, Application and Services, HealthCom 2024
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9798350350548
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event2024 IEEE International Conference on E-Health Networking, Application and Services, HealthCom 2024 - Nara, Japan
Duration: 18 Nov 202420 Nov 2024

Publication series

Name2024 IEEE International Conference on E-Health Networking, Application and Services, HealthCom 2024

Conference

Conference2024 IEEE International Conference on E-Health Networking, Application and Services, HealthCom 2024
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityNara
Period18/11/202420/11/2024

Keywords

  • Neonatal Pose Estimation
  • Neonatal Remote Photoplethysmography
  • Remote Heart Rate Monitoring

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Advancing Neonatal Care: A Deep Learning Approach for Non-Contact Heart Rate Monitoring'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this