It’s very comfortable.”

Mike Nicholson, patient care manager at United Hospital Regina Campus

The Zeto One electroencephalogram (EEG) looks and sounds like something out of science fiction. Patients wear the 24-sensor black head net over their head like a bike helmet which connects to a tablet-like device. After the machine is set up, it can show real-time brain electrical activity with a delay of less than a second.
“It’s very comfortable,” said Mike Nicholson, patient care manager at United Hospital Regina Campus in Hastings. Nicholson was part of the staff training on the Zeto One last month on how to use the new technology coming to the Hastings United Hospital.
EEGs are used to detect abnormal brain electrical activity and seizures. The Regina Campus previously didn’t have access to an EEG, which meant that patients would have to travel to the Twin Cities to seek care, usually to United Hospital in St. Paul or Abbot Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.
This issue is not isolated to Hastings. Many rural hospitals like the Regina Campus couldn’t provide EEGs which would force patients to travel to larger, often urban hospitals to get that care.
Compounding that issue is that EEGs can be used to make sure that a patient doesn’t need further care. This has led to patients travelling to hospitals to receive an EEG only to find out there was nothing wrong.
The Zeto One “prevents unnecessary transfers,” said Allina Health Neurosciences Clinic Manager Meghan Peters.
Last year in Buffalo, using a similar EEG, only around 10% patients needed to transfer for further care after using the new portable EEG. Previously all those patients would have had to transfer to a hospital with EEG capability with around 90% going on to find out they never needed to transfer in the first place.
Nicholson estimates that 8-10 patients would previously travel into the Twin Cities for EEGs each month from the Regina Campus. Now those patients can get that care right from Hastings. The vast majority won’t need to travel further for care.
“There’s a potential of staying home rather than having to go to the Cities,” said Nicholson.
The Federal Drug Administration approved the Zeto One last year, and since then Peters has been trying to get that technology to the Regina Campus.
“There’s a lot of red tape,” said Peters.
The Regina Campus in Hastings is only the second hospital in the state to use the Zeto One, after Winona which got the Zeto One last October.
“My competitive spirit, I wanted to be first,” laughed Peters.
Beyond merely competition, keeping patients closer to home is often simply part of providing better care.
“When patients are sick, they want to stay closer to home,” said Peters.
Keeping patients within their own communities avoids delay in treatment that comes with ambulance rides, checking into a new hospital and waiting for care once there.
“There is just a large amount of time that we are saving that we can now use to treat patients,” said Peters.
When wearing the Zeto One, patients’ brain activity is uploaded to the cloud which allows doctors to see that data in real time, even if they are in a different hospital.
For example, the Regina Campus will still have neurologists and epileptologists from the Twin Cities examine patient data. Patients just no longer need to be in the same hospital for that to happen.
Part of the issue of providing EEGs, especially in smaller hospitals, is that previously hospital technologists were needed. A national shortage of technologists has made providing EEGs even more difficult.
For the Zeto One, however, “Any care team member can use it, as long as you can follow the instructions,” said Peters. The Zeto One can be brought to a patient’s bedside and be set up in a matter of minutes.
“After five minutes, it can tell what percent of the brain electronical activity that is considered abnormal,” said Peters. “They can see almost instantly.”
By allowing experts in other hospitals to review patients’ data, the Zeto One “increases access to expert care,” said Peters.