By Lisa Dowd, Sky Correspondent
The lives of more than 750 patients have been saved at two hospitals after nurses started using iPods instead of paper charts to record patients' vital signs.
Research published in the British Medical Journal found that in one year the number of deaths at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth fell by 397 following the introduction of the new system.
At University Hospital Coventry 372 fewer patients died. The system has been trialled at the West Midlands hospital since 2007.
The special software automatically calculates if a patient is deteriorating and sends out alerts.
Staff have found the system is cutting down mistakes and saving time.
Nurse Amy-Dawn Lees uses an iPod to record a patient's blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels and temperature, as well as tapping in how a patient is feeling.
"The old paper charts were very, very difficult to decipher; the crosses, the arrows, written on the chart by the previous nurse. You can't actually distinguish exactly where the cross is," said Ms Lees.
"On the new electronic charts everything is colour-coded, you are able to see the previous observations in more detail, more accurately and obviously able to see whether your patient is the same, better or worse."
Handheld devices have replaced paper charts at two hospitals Data from each iPod goes into a central computer system, which doctors, nurses and managers can access.
Patients across all wards are given a score of between 0 and 21.
"We have patients in today with high scores varying from 6, where we're starting to be concerned, to 11, which is the sickest patient we have," said Dr Duncan Watson, Clinical Director of Critical Care at University Hospital.
Doctors and nurses are also alerted to patients' needs by colour codes. Red signifies patients who need the most attention.
"It's radically changed things for us," added Dr Watson.
"It has decreased the mortality rates for the hospital, we are able to identify 10 patients a week and prevent them coming into the intensive care units, we can decrease their length of stay and the patients actually do better as they don't get as sick and we identify them quicker."
The system is expensive, according to Dr Watson - but it has the potential to save money long-term.
More importantly, across the two hospitals death rates have fallen by 15%.
Most hospital trusts still use a paper system, but University Hospital is now almost paper-free.
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