Bakersfield firm launches software for remotely monitoring COVID-19 cases
A Bakersfield-based medical software company has responded quickly to the coronavirus pandemic with its launch Tuesday of a cloud-based computer platform designed to help physicians remotely monitor COVID-19 patients. Sargas Pharmaceutical Adherence and Compliance International's system uses Bluetooth-connected wireless medical devices — or, if that's not available, manual data entry — to record patients' temperature, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, pulse and weight. That information is then shared with caregivers over a secure internet connection. CEO Gitesh "Git" Patel, who has worked closely with Bakersfield's Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center for many years, said his roughly 30-employee company has worked in the field of remote patient monitoring for several years. It now provides non-COVID-19 illness management services to hundreds of doctors and some 15,000 patients around the country. When the coronavirus pandemic arose, the company looke