The Physiologic Cipher at Altitude: Telemedicine and Real-Time Monitoring of Climbers on Mount Everest

Advanced wearable biosensors for vital-signs monitoring (physiologic cipher) are available to improve quality of healthcare in hospital, nursing home, and remote environments. The objective of this study was to determine reliability of vital-signs monitoring systems in ex-treme environments. Three climbers were monitored 24 hours while climbing through Khumbu Icefall. Data were transmitted to Everest Base Camp (elevation 17,800 feet) and re-transmitted to Yale University via telemedicine. Main outcome measures (location, heart rate, skin temperature, core body temperature, and activity level) all correlated through time-stamped identification. Two of three location devices functioned 100 % of the time, and one device failed after initial acquisition of location 75 % of the time. Vital-signs monitors func-tioned from 95%–100 % of the time, with the exception of one climber whose heart-rate mon-itor functioned 78 % of the time. Due to architecture of automatic polling and data acquisi-tion of biosensors, no climber was ever without a full set of data for more than 25 minutes. Climbers were monitored continuously in real-time from Mount Everest to Yale University for more than 45 minutes. Heart rate varied from 76 to 164 beats per minute, skin tempera