Review of sensors for remote patient monitoring

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) of physiological measurements can provide an efficient method and high quality care to patients. The physiological signals measurement is the initial and the most important factor in RPM. This paper discusses the characteristics of the most popular sensors, which are used to obtain vital clinical signals in prevalent RPM systems. The sensors discussed in this paper are used to measure ECG, heart sound, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure and respiration rate, which are treated as the most important vital data in patient monitoring and medical examination

How 5G wireless (and concomitant technologies) will revolutionize healthcare?

The need to have equitable access to quality healthcare is enshrined in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which defines the developmental agenda of the UN for the next 15 years. In particular, the third SDG focuses on the need to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. In this paper, we build the case that 5G wireless technology, along with concomitant emerging technologies (such as IoT, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning), will transform global healthcare systems in the near future. Our optimism around 5G-enabled healthcare stems from a confluence of significant technical pushes that are already at play: apart from the availability of high-throughput low-latency wireless connectivity, other significant factors include the democratization of computing through cloud computing; the democratization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing (e.g., IBM Watson); and the commoditization of data through crowdsourcing and digital exhaust. These technologies together can finally crack a dysfunctional healthcare system that has largely been impervious to technological innovations. We highlight the persistent deficiencies of the current healthcare system and then demonstrate how the 5G-enabled healthcare revolution can fix these deficiencies. We also highlight open technical research challenges, and potential pitfalls, that may hinder the development of such a 5G-enabled health revolution

Wireless body sensor networks for health-monitoring applications

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Physiological Measurement. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/29/11/R01

Extending remote patient monitoring with mobile real time clinical decision support

Large scale implementation of telemedicine services such as telemonitoring and teletreatment will generate huge amounts of clinical data. Even small amounts of data from continuous patient monitoring cannot be scrutinised in real time and round the clock by health professionals. In future huge volumes of such data will have to be routinely screened by intelligent software systems. We investigate how to make m-health systems for ambulatory care more intelligent by applying a Decision Support approach in the analysis and interpretation of biosignal data and to support adherence to evidence-based best practice such as is expressed in treatment protocols and clinical practice guidelines. The resulting Clinical Decision Support Systems must be able to accept and interpret real time streaming biosignals and context data as well as the patient’s (relatively less dynamic) clinical and administrative data. In this position paper we describe the telemonitoring/teletreatment system developed at the University of Twente, based on Body Area Network (BAN) technology, and present our vision of how BAN-based telemedicine services can be enhanced by incorporating mobile real time Clinical Decision Support. We believe that the main innovative aspects of the vision relate to the implementation of decision support on a mobile platform; incorporation of real time input and analysis of streaming\ud biosignals into the inferencing process; implementation of decision support in a distributed system; and the consequent challenges such as maintenance of consistency of knowledge, state and beliefs across a distributed environment

Future of smart cardiovascular implants

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in Western society. Recent technological advances have opened the opportunity of developing new and innovative smart stent devices that have advanced electrical properties that can improve diagnosis and even treatment of previously intractable conditions, such as central line access failure, atherosclerosis and reporting on vascular grafts for renal dialysis. Here we review the latest advances in the field of cardiovascular medical implants, providing a broad overview of the application of their use in the context of cardiovascular disease rather than an in-depth analysis of the current state of the art. We cover their powering, communication and the challenges faced in their fabrication. We focus specifically on those devices required to maintain vascular access such as ones used to treat arterial disease, a major source of heart attacks and strokes. We look forward to advances in these technologies in the future and their implementation to improve the human condition

Development of Wearable Systems for Ubiquitous Healthcare Service Provisioning

This paper reports on the development of a wearable system using wireless biomedical sensors for ubiquitous healthcare service provisioning. The prototype system is developed to address current healthcare challenges such as increasing cost of services, inability to access diverse services, low quality services and increasing population of elderly as experienced globally. The biomedical sensors proactively collect physiological data of remote patients to recommend diagnostic services. The prototype system is designed to monitor oxygen saturation level (SpO2), Heart Rate (HR), activity and location of the elderly. Physiological data collected are uploaded to a Health Server (HS) via GPRS/Internet for analysis.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, APCBEE Procedia 7, 2013. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1309.154

A Review of Wireless Body Area Networks for Medical Applications

Recent advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, integrated circuits, and wireless communication have allowed the realization of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). WBANs promise unobtrusive ambulatory health monitoring for a long period of time and provide real-time updates of the patient's status to the physician. They are widely used for ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, and military applications. This paper reviews the key aspects of WBANs for numerous applications. We present a WBAN infrastructure that provides solutions to on-demand, emergency, and normal traffic. We further discuss in-body antenna design and low-power MAC protocol for WBAN. In addition, we briefly outline some of the WBAN applications with examples. Our discussion realizes a need for new power-efficient solutions towards in-body and on-body sensor networks.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, and 3 tables. In V3, the manuscript is converted to LaTe

Technology of swallowable capsule for medical applications

Medical technology has undergone major breakthroughs in recent years, especially in the area of the examination tools for diagnostic purposes. This paper reviews the swallowable capsule technology in the examination of the gastrointestinal system for various diseases. The wireless camera pill has created a more advanced method than many traditional examination methods for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroscopy by the use of an endoscope. After years of great innovation, commercial swallowable pills have been produced and applied in clinical practice. These smart pills can cover the examination of the gastrointestinal system and not only provide to the physicians a lot more useful data that is not available from the traditional methods, but also eliminates the use of the painful endoscopy procedure. In this paper, the key state-of-the-art technologies in the existing Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) systems are fully reported and the recent research progresses related to these technologies are reviewed. The paper ends by further discussion on the current technical bottlenecks and future research in this area