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Abstract— Real motivation of this research work is to develop
an efficient system that can monitor multiple patients’ health
parameters simultaneously and can effectively deliver the data to
a patient monitoring system where it is stored permanently.
Current traditional health monitoring is accomplished by
individual PCs attached to each patient’s bed. The multiple
parameters that are monitored are blood pressure, temperature,
ECG, and EEG. Our research investigates the potential of WSN
to reliably, wirelessly collect, send and process these multiple
parameters of multiple patients simultaneously, in real-time. This
research succeeds in transforming the traditional individual
patient monitoring apparatus and its requirements into an
apparatus that is capable of reliably monitoring the multiple
parameters of up to six patients simultaneously, in real-time.
Managing interference and ensuring the accurate delivery of the
information to the monitoring system using the most effective
wireless communication technique are the challenges taken in to
consideration. This is achieved by identifying each patient’s
monitored parameter using a unique ID and employing a time
scheduling scheme during data transmission. The system also
alerts the doctor/nurse of some measured value cross threshold
limits. A real time data storage mechanism employed here helps
to look further into the recorded data by the doctor. This
contribution succeeds in indicating where there could be huge
savings in power consumption and cost for hospitals. Currently
employed systems use a one patient monitoring system per
patient which is expensive, whereas this system uses the same
resources to monitor up to six patients, with more comfort to the
patients and more convenience for the healthcare professionals.
INTRODUCTION
Continuous monitoring of the health parameters of patients is
one of the major problems faced by the hospital authorities
nowadays. Monitoring should be accurate, precise and carried
out in real time [9]. Current patient monitoring systems consist
of single patient monitoring systems, where sensors are
hardwired to a PC next to bed [7]. Human intervention is also
needed frequently. That is, a nurse will have to frequently
monitor the patient’s health parameters. Employing a multiple
patient monitoring system as oppose to a single patient
monitoring system per patient, would be more cost and power
efficient, and would allow the healthcare professionals to
monitor many patients simultaneously without being in the
same location. So a system that can overcome the above
mentioned problems will really benefit developing countries
like India.
The proposed system makes use of the idea of network
technology with wireless applicability. Each patient is
identified using an identifier makes it simpler for a doctor in
identifying the patient’s current health status. The monitored
parameters are processed and compared with the individual
threshold limits of each patient and is networked to the patient
monitoring system in doctors room. It is also networked to the
monitoring system in nurse room. Hence in case of doctor’s
absence since the monitored data being stored, an experienced
nurse can convey the status of certain patient’s parameter to
doctor’s mobile phone. Thus the necessary health aid can be
provided and once the doctor arrives the results of concerned
patients can be checked.
Section II describes the problem. Section III discusses the
related work. Section IV explains the proposed system
architecture. Section V presents a decision making algorithm
for monitoring and detecting conditions of patients in
hospitals. Section VI focuses on the implementation and
results. Section VII describes the experimental setup. Section
VIII describes theoretical calculations. Section IX and X
contains the conclusion and future work respectively.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem, that motivated us to develop this system, is the
difficulties for monitoring multiple patients’ health conditions
faced by healthcare providers. In case of a large hospital
where multiple patients need to be monitored simultaneously a
separate monitoring system for each patient is inefficient. By
employing a single system for multiple patients there will be a
huge reduction in cost as well as power consumption. Data
being recorded can be used for further research purposes if
needed. It also provides flexibility to doctors.
III. RELATED WORK
A two-tier clinical warning system, for hospitalized patients,
was described in [1], which incorporates preventing clinical
deterioration in patients, through early detection and
intervention. Their system consists of an Early Warning
System (EWS) which identifies at-risk patients from existing
real-time Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data, using
machine learning algorithms. A key challenge that they noted
had not been overcome for such applications was to be able
reliably deliver sensor data from mobile patients. This system
focuses on a solution for this problem. Whereas the proposed
system is capable of overcoming this limitation. A novel wireless sensor network structure to monitor patients, with
chronic diseases in their own homes, through a remote
monitoring system of physiological signals assessment is
discussed in [2]. They present a new design which eliminates
the need for a PC to send patients’ data to a hospital. Mobile
patient monitoring systems, which integrates current personal
digital assistant (PDA) technology where used in [3] and [4].
[4] used PDA in conjunction with wireless local area network
(WLAN) and discussed the possibility of using Bluetooth
technology, in the future. However disadvantages of Bluetooth
are that is in capable of multiple hopping and its range is
limited. [5] looks at currently used wireless techniques in
hospitals. The technologies of wireless sensors and data
transmission, and their ability to meet the needs of patient
monitoring in the operating room and the intensive care unit,
are reviewed.
IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system, as shown in “Fig.1”, monitors the
parameters of multiple patients such as their blood pressure,
temperature, ECG, EEG. These are processed and are
compared with the threshold limits and are wirelessly
transmitted to the patient monitoring system held at doctor’s
room. The data is also networked to the monitoring system in
nurse room. Each patient is identified using their Unique ID
and thus doctors will get a detailed report of each individual
patient’s current status and state. In case of doctor’s absence
since the monitored data being stored at the nurse system, the
monitored values along with their status can be send to the
doctor’s mobile phones [6] or make use of internet facility.
Thus our system helps in the simultaneous monitoring of the
multiple parameters in multiple patients.
DECISION MAKING ALGORITHM
A decision making algorithm shown in “Fig.2” is proposed
based on the risk factor of patients. The risk factor can be
obtained from the current status of patient. In the case of
critical patients the system can collect data continuously
whereas in the case of patients with a low risk factor an option
of transmitting data after some duration of time is provided.
Thus power usage can be reduced. The parameter, we focus on
in this paper, is blood pressure. A monitored patient’s
condition can be classified into three blood pressure values:
Normal, Mild Hypertension and Severe Hypertension. Normal
person’s blood pressure ranges between 80 and 120. A person
whose blood pressure value is between 120 and 140 is referred
as having Mild Hypertension. A person whose blood pressure
value lies above 140 is referred as having Severe
Hypertension. By observing the monitored results we can
classify the patients into safe or critical zones and alert the
doctor/nurse to come to the patient’s aid if necessary.