Challenges in Blood Pressure Self-Measurement

Blood pressure self-measurement (BPSM) requires patients to follow a range of recommendations in order to be considered reliable for diagnostic use. We investigated currently used BPSM interventions at four medical clinics combined with an online questionnaire targeting BPSM users. We found that the participating healthcare personnel perceived BPSM as a relevant and useful intervention method providing that the recommendations are followed. A total of six challenges were identified: (1) existing devices do not guarantee that the recommendations are followed, (2) healthcare providers cannot verify whether self-monitoring patients follow the recommendations, (3) patients are not aware of all recommendations and the need to follow them, (4) risk of patient induced reporting bias, (5) risk of healthcare provider induced data-transfer bias, and (6) risk of data being registered as belonging to the wrong patient. We conclude that existing BPSM interventions could be significantly affected by user-induced bias resulting in an indeterminable quality of the measurement data. Therefore, we suggest applying context-aware technological support tools to better detect and quantify user errors. This may allow us to develop solutions that could overcome or compensate for such errors in the future

Users, Economics, Technology: Unavoidable Interdynamics

This paper briefly presents some conclusions of a brainstorming session on the way technology is evolving in ICT. Technology advances have overcome society ability to answer, both in economic and in human aspects. The current design paradigms, of agnostic technology development, need to be reconsidered, and the user needs to be repositioned at the center of future developments

Bioinspired Principles for Large-Scale Networked Sensor Systems: An Overview

Biology has often been used as a source of inspiration in computer science and engineering. Bioinspired principles have found their way into network node design and research due to the appealing analogies between biological systems and large networks of small sensors. This paper provides an overview of bioinspired principles and methods such as swarm intelligence, natural time synchronization, artificial immune system and intercellular information exchange applicable for sensor network design. Bioinspired principles and methods are discussed in the context of routing, clustering, time synchronization, optimal node deployment, localization and security and privacy

The Effect on Wireless Sensor Communication When Deployed in Biomass

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been studied in a variety of scenarios over recent years, but work has almost exclusively been done using air as the transmission media. In this article some of the challenges of deploying a WSN in a heterogeneous biomass, in this case silage, is handled. The dielectric constant of silage is measured using an open-ended coaxial probe. Results were successfully obtained in the frequency range from 400 MHz to 4 GHz, but large variations suggested that a larger probe should be used for more stable results. Furthermore, the detuning of helix and loop antennas and the transmission loss of the two types of antennas embedded in silage was measured. It was found that the loop antenna suffered less from detuning but was worse when transmitting. Lastly, it is suggested that taking the dielectric properties of silage into account during hardware development could result in much better achievable communication range