Fog Computing in Medical Internet-of-Things: Architecture, Implementation, and Applications

In the era when the market segment of Internet of Things (IoT) tops the chart in various business reports, it is apparently envisioned that the field of medicine expects to gain a large benefit from the explosion of wearables and internet-connected sensors that surround us to acquire and communicate unprecedented data on symptoms, medication, food intake, and daily-life activities impacting one's health and wellness. However, IoT-driven healthcare would have to overcome many barriers, such as: 1) There is an increasing demand for data storage on cloud servers where the analysis of the medical big data becomes increasingly complex, 2) The data, when communicated, are vulnerable to security and privacy issues, 3) The communication of the continuously collected data is not only costly but also energy hungry, 4) Operating and maintaining the sensors directly from the cloud servers are non-trial tasks. This book chapter defined Fog Computing in the context of medical IoT. Conceptually, Fog Computing is a service-oriented intermediate layer in IoT, providing the interfaces between the sensors and cloud servers for facilitating connectivity, data transfer, and queryable local database. The centerpiece of Fog computing is a low-power, intelligent, wireless, embedded computing node that carries out signal conditioning and data analytics on raw data collected from wearables or other medical sensors and offers efficient means to serve telehealth interventions. We implemented and tested an fog computing system using the Intel Edison and Raspberry Pi that allows acquisition, computing, storage and communication of the various medical data such as pathological speech data of individuals with speech disorders, Phonocardiogram (PCG) signal for heart rate estimation, and Electrocardiogram (ECG)-based Q, R, S detection.Comment: 29 pages, 30 figures, 5 tables. Keywords: Big Data, Body Area Network, Body Sensor Network, Edge Computing, Fog Computing, Medical Cyberphysical Systems, Medical Internet-of-Things, Telecare, Tele-treatment, Wearable Devices, Chapter in Handbook of Large-Scale Distributed Computing in Smart Healthcare (2017), Springe

System for Detection of Vital Signals with an Embedded System

Rapid advancement in the field of Embedded Systems and Wireless communications has permitted development of Revolutionary Medical Monitoring Systems and thus improving the lifestyle of patients. The system captures and analyzes the ECG signals in real time through a low cost embedded development board. The system can detect cardiac abnormalities with high precision. One of the objectives at the time of building the proposed system has been to optimize the resources, memory size and communication costs

Computer Aided ECG Analysis - State of the Art and Upcoming Challenges

In this paper we present current achievements in computer aided ECG analysis and their applicability in real world medical diagnosis process. Most of the current work is covering problems of removing noise, detecting heartbeats and rhythm-based analysis. There are some advancements in particular ECG segments detection and beat classifications but with limited evaluations and without clinical approvals. This paper presents state of the art advancements in those areas till present day. Besides this short computer science and signal processing literature review, paper covers future challenges regarding the ECG signal morphology analysis deriving from the medical literature review. Paper is concluded with identified gaps in current advancements and testing, upcoming challenges for future research and a bullseye test is suggested for morphology analysis evaluation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, IEEE EUROCON 2013 International conference on computer as a tool, 1-4 July 2013, Zagreb, Croati

System Integration for Medical Data Dissemination and Multimedia Communication in the Implementation of Tele-ECG and Teleconsultation

One of the options to extend medical services coverage is deploying a telemedicine system, where medical personnel make use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to overcome distance and time constraints. The implementation of telemedicine systems in Indonesia faces challenges posed by the lack of ICT infrastructure availability, such as communication networks, data centres, and other computing resources. To deal with these challenges, a telemedicine innovation needs to produce a modular and flexible system that is adaptive to medical services needed and the available ICT infrastructure. This paper presents research and development of a telemedicine system prototype for tele-electrocardiography (tele-ECG) and teleconsultation. The contributions offered are integrating system from various open-source modules and the system operational feasibility based on its function and performance. The research is conducted on a testbed which represents various components involved in the telemedicine system operation. Experiments are carried out to assess the system functionality and observe whether tele-ECG and teleconsultation reach their expected performance. Experiment results show that the system works properly and recommend several multimedia communication modes to achieve the target quality based on the available network bandwidth

A feasibility study for the provision of electronic healthcare tools and services in areas of Greece, Cyprus and Italy

Background: Through this paper, we present the initial steps for the creation of an integrated platform for the provision of a series of eHealth tools and services to both citizens and travelers in isolated areas of thesoutheast Mediterranean, and on board ships travelling across it. The platform was created through an INTERREG IIIB ARCHIMED project called INTERMED. Methods: The support of primary healthcare, home care and the continuous education of physicians are the three major issues that the proposed platform is trying to facilitate. The proposed system is based on state-of-the-art telemedicine systems and is able to provide the following healthcare services: i) Telecollaboration and teleconsultation services between remotely located healthcare providers, ii) telemedicine services in emergencies, iii) home telecare services for "at risk" citizens such as the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, and iv) eLearning services for the continuous training through seminars of both healthcare personnel (physicians, nurses etc) and persons supporting "at risk" citizens. These systems support data transmission over simple phone lines, internet connections, integrated services digital network/digital subscriber lines, satellite links, mobile networks (GPRS/3G), and wireless local area networks. The data corresponds, among others, to voice, vital biosignals, still medical images, video, and data used by eLearning applications. The proposed platform comprises several systems, each supporting different services. These were integrated using a common data storage and exchange scheme in order to achieve system interoperability in terms of software, language and national characteristics. Results: The platform has been installed and evaluated in different rural and urban sites in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. The evaluation was mainly related to technical issues and user satisfaction. The selected sites are, among others, rural health centers, ambulances, homes of "at-risk" citizens, and a ferry. Conclusions: The results proved the functionality and utilization of the platform in various rural places in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. However, further actions are needed to enable the local healthcare systems and the different population groups to be familiarized with, and use in their everyday lives, mature technological solutions for the provision of healthcare services

Ear-Lead Multiple Smart Bio Sensor System in M-health

In this paper, we present a multi-parameter wearable sensor system within a smartphone to enable a real-time unobtrusive monitoring of core body temperature, electrocardiogram (ear-lead ECG), and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) on ambulatory patients. Clinical researches illustrating that continuing accurate measurements of core body temperature are crucial to investigate human thermoregulation in ambulatory environment and during activity. On the other part, ECG remains the mainstay test for primary diagnosis and survival analysis of the heart diseases. We implement a wireless multisensory system that measures both the tympanic temperature inside the ear and ECG data from an ear and an arm. The behind-the-Ear device makes desirable to measure ECG data without any chest belt and allow patient move around freely. The proposed Bluetooth device has similarity the form factor of a hearing aid and is wirelessly connected to a smartphone for data transmission and displaying. This device not only gives the doctors access to the core temperature and ECG data in real time, but the device can be controlled – removed and reapplied – by the patient at any time, thus increasing the performance of personal health applications

Smart home technology for aging

The majority of the growing population, in the US and the rest of the world requires some degree of formal and or informal care either due to the loss of function or failing health as a result of aging and most of them suffer from chronic disorders. The cost and burden of caring for elders is steadily increasing. This thesis focuses on providing the analysis of the technologies with which a Smart Home is built to improve the quality of life of the elderly. A great deal of emphasis is given to the sensor technologies that are the back bone of these Smart Homes. In addition to the Analysis of these technologies a survey of commercial sensor products and products in research that are concerned with monitoring the health of the occupants of the Smart Home is presented. A brief analysis on the communication technologies which form the communication infrastructure for the Smart Home is also illustrated. Finally, System Architecture for the Smart Home is proposed describing the functionality and users of the system. The feasibility of the system is also discussed. A scenario measuring the blood glucose level of the occupant in a Smart Home is presented as to support the system architecture presented