Mobihealth: mobile health services based on body area networks

In this chapter we describe the concept of MobiHealth and the approach developed during the MobiHealth project (MobiHealth, 2002). The concept was to bring together the technologies of Body Area Networks (BANs), wireless broadband communications and wearable medical devices to provide mobile healthcare services for patients and health professionals. These technologies enable remote patient care services such as management of chronic conditions and detection of health emergencies. Because the patient is free to move anywhere whilst wearing the MobiHealth BAN, patient mobility is maximised. The vision is that patients can enjoy enhanced freedom and quality of life through avoidance or reduction of hospital stays. For the health services it means that pressure on overstretched hospital services can be alleviated

Development of a Signal Processing Library for Extraction of SpO2, HR, HRV, and RR from Photoplethysmographic Waveforms

Non-invasive remote physiological monitoring of soldiers on the battlefield has the potential to provide fast, accurate status assessments that are key to improving the survivability of critical injuries. The development of WPI’s wearable wireless pulse oximeter, designed for field-based applications, has allowed for the optimization of important hardware features such as physical size and power management. However, software-based digital signal processing (DSP) methods are still required to perform physiological assessments. This research evaluated DSP methods that were capable of providing arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2), heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and respiration rate (RR) measurements derived from data acquired using a single optical sensor. In vivo experiments were conducted to evaluate the accuracies of the processing methods across ranges of physiological conditions. Of the algorithms assessed, 13 SpO2 methods, 1 HR method, 6 HRV indices, and 4 RR methods were identified that provided clinically acceptable measurement accuracies and could potentially be employed in a wearable pulse oximeter