Ubiquitous Computing for Remote Cardiac Patient Monitoring: A Survey

New wireless technologies, such as wireless LAN and sensor networks, for telecardiology purposes give new possibilities for monitoring vital parameters with wearable biomedical sensors, and give patients the freedom to be mobile and still be under continuous monitoring and thereby better quality of patient care. This paper will detail the architecture and quality-of-service (QoS) characteristics in integrated wireless telecardiology platforms. It will also discuss the current promising hardware/software platforms for wireless cardiac monitoring. The design methodology and challenges are provided for realistic implementation

Cost effectiveness of telephone follow up for paediatric patients with epilepsy in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia Kelantan

Background Childhood epilepsy is a condition that has a wide possibility of causes. Most of the children with epilepsy also suffer from other complications either from the underlying condition or epilepsy itself. It is of utmost importance that these children are followed up to ensure that their illness is controlled and to help them achieve a good quality of life. However frequent clinic visits for follow up appointments have placed a high financial burden on most families and is also a cause of defaults for appointments. The high patient load in clinics from these frequent appointments have also placed a burden on the hospitals in terms of cost and labour force needed. The purpose of this study is to use the telephone as a tool for follow up of patient’s well-being and control of seizures at home. This does not require them to come to the hospital and would reduce the financial burden to both, the family of the child and the hospital. Method The study was a pilot study and was conducted in the Paediatric Neurology clinic of HUSM from June 2013 till February 2014. It involved a total of 68 children with epilepsy aged 2 years till 21years who fulfilled the study inclusion criteria. They were divided into two arms, one arm had a telephone follow up in the following three months and the other arm had a clinic appointment. Results The results showed significant reduction in cost in the telephone follow up group as compared to the conventional clinic follow up with no significant increase in morbidity or mortality. The average cost to Hospital USM for clinic follow up was RM 25.57 per patient whereas the cost for telephone follow up averaged RM 4.86 per patient. The cost to patients for clinic follow up averaged RM 44.85 and a consultation via telephone averaged RM 1.84, as the phone calls were made by the hospital. Conclusion The cost effectiveness analysis has quantitatively showed in this pilot study that it is more cost effective to the hospital if patients with chronic disease who needed regular follow up could be followed up with telephone consultation

Medical microprocessor systems

The practical classes and laboratory work in the discipline "Medical microprocessor systems", performed using software in the programming environment of microprocessors Texas Instruments (Code Composer Studio) and using of digital microprocessors of the Texas Instruments DSK6400 family, and models of electrical equipment in the environment of graphical programming LabVIEW 2010.Лабораторний практикум з програмування та побудови медичних мікропроцесорних систем, який викладено у навчальному посібнику допомагає накопичувати й ефективно використовувати отриману інформацію з теоретичного курсу на всіх стадіях навчального процесу, що є важливим для підготовки магістрів та необхідною ланкою у науковому пізнанні практичних основ біомедичної електроніки.The laboratory workshop on the programming and construction of medical microprocessor systems, which is outlined in the tutorial, helps to accumulate and effectively use the information obtained from a theoretical course at all stages of the educational process, which is important for the preparation of masters and a necessary link in the scientific knowledge of the practical basics of biomedicine.Лабораторный практикум по программированию и построению медицинских микропроцессорных систем, который изложен в учебном пособии помогает накапливать и эффективно использовать полученную информацию из теоретического курса на всех стадиях учебного процесса, что важно для подготовки магистров и является необходимым звеном в научном познании практических основ биомедицинской электроники

Performance Evaluation of an Enhanced Uplink 3.5G System for Mobile Healthcare Applications

The present paper studies the prospective and the performance of a forthcoming high-speed third generation (3.5G) networking technology, called enhanced uplink, for delivering mobile health (m-health) applications. The performance of 3.5G networks is a critical factor for successful development of m-health services perceived by end users. In this paper, we propose a methodology for performance assessment based on the joint uplink transmission of voice, real-time video, biological data (such as electrocardiogram, vital signals, and heart sounds), and healthcare records file transfer. Various scenarios were concerned in terms of real-time, nonreal-time, and emergency applications in random locations, where no other system but 3.5G is available. The accomplishment of quality of service (QoS) was explored through a step-by-step improvement of enhanced uplink system's parameters, attributing the network system for the best performance in the context of the desired m-health services