A high-speed wireless network used for telemedicine

Nowadays, there is growing interest in using telemedicine to provide non-face-to-face healthcare for patients. The emergence and development of WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology, which supports high-speed wireless communications within the existing Intranet that covers the healthcare system, makes it possible to provide routine body check-ups for patients who need long-term monitoring. In this thesis, we present the design of a wireless telemedicine system using WLAN technology. [Continues.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine is a rapidly evolving field as new technologies are implemented for example for the development of wireless sensors, quality data transmission. Using the Internet applications such as counseling, clinical consultation support and home care monitoring and management are more and more realized, which improves access to high level medical care in underserved areas. The 23 chapters of this book present manifold examples of telemedicine treating both theoretical and practical foundations and application scenarios

Compression and encryption for ECG biomedical signal in healthcare system

The ECG data needs large memory storage device due to continuous heart rate logs and vital parameter storage. Thus, efficient compression schemes are applied to it before sending it to the telemedicine center for monitoring and analysis. Proper compression mechanisms can not only improve the storage efficiency but also help in faster porting of data from one device to another due to its compact size. Also, the collected ECG signals are processed through various filtering techniques to remove unnecessary noise and then compressed. In our scheme, we propose use of buffer blocks, which is quite novel in this field. Usage of highly efficient methods for peak detection, noise removal, compression and encryption enable seamless and secure transmission of ECG signal from sensor to the monitor. This work further makes use of AES 256 CBC mode, which is barely used in embedded devices, proves to be very strong and efficient in ciphering of the information. The PRD outcome of proposed work comes as 0.41% and CR as 0.35%, which is quite better than existing schemes. Experimental results prove the efficiency of proposed schemes on five distinct signal records from MIT-BIH arrhythmia datasets

Design of a mobile telecardiology system using GPRS/GSM technology

This paper presents the design and development of a portable electrocardiograph to allow the on-line remote monitoring and real-time cardiac diseases diagnostics of patients from the specialist. This prototype has been satisfactory implemented finding a good balance between optimal signal processing and power consumption using a GPRS/GSM modem and a SMT low voltage microprocessor board

ECG Signal Compression for Diverse Transforms

Biological signal compression and especially ECG has an important role in the diagnosis, prognosis and survival analysis of heart diseases. Various techniques have been proposed over the years addressing the signal compression. Compression of digital electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is desirable for three reasons- economic use of storage data, reduction of the data transmission rate and transmission bandwidth conversation. ECG signal. In this paper a comparative study of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Discrete Cosine compression is used for telemedicine field and re Transform (DCT) and Wavelet Transform (WT) transform based approach is carried out. Different ECG signals are tested from MIT-BIH arrhythmia database using MATLAB software. The experimental results are obtained for Percent Root Mean Square Difference (PRD), Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) and Compression ratio (CR). The result of ECG signal compression shows better compression performance in DWT compared to DFT, FFT and DCT. Keywords: Electrocardiogram (ECG), Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), Wavelet Transform (WT)

Use of 3G mobile phone links for teleconsultation between a moving ambulance and a hospital base station

The importance of this paper lays in its suggestion: minimise the time for the initial treatment of a patient. As soon as an ambulance receives a patient, a videoconferencing session can be initiated between the moving vehicle and a base station in a hospital where a medical consultant resides. The communication link is implemented using 3G networks. Effectively, the use of such a system can decrease fatality on patients being transferred to A&E, as expert opinion can be obtained straight away. This paper was repeatedly cited in IEEE papers and formed the basis for an EPSRC proposal that was recently submitted

Ambulance 3G

Minimising the time required for a patient to receive primary care has always been the concern of the Accidents and Emergency units. Ambulances are usually the first to arrive on the scene and to administer first aid. However, as the time that it takes to transfer the patient to the hospital increases, so does the fatality rate. In this paper, a mobile teleconsultation system is presented, based primarily on third generation mobile links and on Wi-Fi hotspots around a city. This system can be installed inside an ambulance and will permit high-resolution videoconferencing between the moving vehicle and a doctor or a consultant within a base station (usually a hospital). In addition to video and voice, high quality still images and screenshots from medical equipment can also be sent. The test was carried out in Athens, Greece where a 3G system was recently deployed by Vodafone. The results show that the system can perform satisfactory in most conditions and can effectively increase the patient’s quality of service, while having a modest cost