18-12-2012, 04:35 PM
Review of wireless sensors networks in health applications
[attachment=44250]
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are becoming
increasingly important for telemedicine applications, monitoring
patients both in the clinical setting and at home. They
reduce user discomfort, enhance mobility and reduce costs.
WSN are also fundamental in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)
since these smart systems, which are tailored to users needs,
collect information about users and their ambient in order to
provide personalized feedback.
Despite the growing use of wireless communications in the
health domain and in AAL systems there is a lack of research
literature reviewing trials of these technologies. This paper
provides a systematic review of the use of WSN in the health
domain, presenting current WSN implementations. It covers
126 papers, of which 26 are studies, classified according to
inclusion criteria. There is presented a discussion about the
recent research conducted in the field.
INTRODUCTION
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) are becoming increasingly
important for monitoring patients both in the clinical
setting and at home. They provide more comfort for patients,
with the absence of wires reducing costs and providing more
flexibility. WSN are also fundamental in AAL since these
smart systems, tailored to users needs, collect information
about users and their ambient in order to provide personalized
feedback. Wireless Sensor Networks can integrate
vital sign sensors and also environmental sensors such as
air quality.
Despite the growing use of wireless communications in
the health domain and AAL systems the research literature
reviewing trials of these technologies is still scarce. This
paper provides a systematic review of the use of WSN in
the health domain.
METHODOLOGY
This section describes the methodology used to identify
and classify the research papers.
A. Establish exclusion criteria
The most important aspects are to do with results with
users. That is why exclusion criteria have been applied to
those papers that present a system implementation where a
WSN is used.
Choosing the search engine
We used Pubmed, a search engine for health-related publications,
which provides results according to the case of study.
However, other search engines were used but then ruled out
due to the poor results obtained.
For example, using the keywords wireless, sensor health
on IEEE xplore returns 50 results, all of which match the
exclusion criteria. Using the same keywords at Pubmed
returns 126 results, with 21% of them matching the inclusion
criteria.
Applications
The reviewed publications can be divided into two main
groups of application: monitoring and fall detection.
Fall detection applications cater for a specific scenario
where the data is provided by an accelerometer and additional
information (i.e. GPS data). Each paper contributes
with its own algorithm to determine whether the participant
has fallen over. They share a common structure in which
the sensor gathers the data from the accelerometer; this
information is then processed at the sensor and the fall event
is transmitted to a central device where the information is
displayed.
Monitoring systems can be divided into those that implement
a general health monitoring system and those that
provide a solution to a specific condition (diabetes, sleep
disorders, etc.). General health monitoring systems focus
on system structure and how information is gathered and
transmitted, to a central device and displayed. The specific
applications present a study about how the information
is gathered, mainly using trials with a large number of
participants, and they also discuss the results of these trials.
Network and standards
Two main transmission technologies are used to communicate
sensors with WSN, ZigBee and Bluetooth. The main
feature of these standards is the low power consumption
which is a basic feature of WSN.
There are two main transmission technologies that are used
in order to communicate sensors at the WSN, ZigBee and
Bluetooth. The main feature about these standards is the low
power consumption which is a basic feature at the WSN.
Other alternatives use Radio Frequency (RF)[7], Radio
Frequency IDentification (RFID)[23] or they do not even
mention the transmission technology[24][27] .
CONCLUSSIONS
This paper has presented current systems implementations
in the WSN domain. There are several applications that
focus on telemonitoring and fall detection that use wireless
technologies like ZigBee or BlueTooth.
As mentioned, these implementations would benefit from
more trials, lasting longer and with more participants to
provide more detailed information about system autonomy
and comfort. Guaranteeing the privacy and authenticity of the
transmitted data is also an important objective. To achieve
this, security mechanisms have to be implemented.
[attachment=44250]
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are becoming
increasingly important for telemedicine applications, monitoring
patients both in the clinical setting and at home. They
reduce user discomfort, enhance mobility and reduce costs.
WSN are also fundamental in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)
since these smart systems, which are tailored to users needs,
collect information about users and their ambient in order to
provide personalized feedback.
Despite the growing use of wireless communications in the
health domain and in AAL systems there is a lack of research
literature reviewing trials of these technologies. This paper
provides a systematic review of the use of WSN in the health
domain, presenting current WSN implementations. It covers
126 papers, of which 26 are studies, classified according to
inclusion criteria. There is presented a discussion about the
recent research conducted in the field.
INTRODUCTION
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) are becoming increasingly
important for monitoring patients both in the clinical
setting and at home. They provide more comfort for patients,
with the absence of wires reducing costs and providing more
flexibility. WSN are also fundamental in AAL since these
smart systems, tailored to users needs, collect information
about users and their ambient in order to provide personalized
feedback. Wireless Sensor Networks can integrate
vital sign sensors and also environmental sensors such as
air quality.
Despite the growing use of wireless communications in
the health domain and AAL systems the research literature
reviewing trials of these technologies is still scarce. This
paper provides a systematic review of the use of WSN in
the health domain.
METHODOLOGY
This section describes the methodology used to identify
and classify the research papers.
A. Establish exclusion criteria
The most important aspects are to do with results with
users. That is why exclusion criteria have been applied to
those papers that present a system implementation where a
WSN is used.
Choosing the search engine
We used Pubmed, a search engine for health-related publications,
which provides results according to the case of study.
However, other search engines were used but then ruled out
due to the poor results obtained.
For example, using the keywords wireless, sensor health
on IEEE xplore returns 50 results, all of which match the
exclusion criteria. Using the same keywords at Pubmed
returns 126 results, with 21% of them matching the inclusion
criteria.
Applications
The reviewed publications can be divided into two main
groups of application: monitoring and fall detection.
Fall detection applications cater for a specific scenario
where the data is provided by an accelerometer and additional
information (i.e. GPS data). Each paper contributes
with its own algorithm to determine whether the participant
has fallen over. They share a common structure in which
the sensor gathers the data from the accelerometer; this
information is then processed at the sensor and the fall event
is transmitted to a central device where the information is
displayed.
Monitoring systems can be divided into those that implement
a general health monitoring system and those that
provide a solution to a specific condition (diabetes, sleep
disorders, etc.). General health monitoring systems focus
on system structure and how information is gathered and
transmitted, to a central device and displayed. The specific
applications present a study about how the information
is gathered, mainly using trials with a large number of
participants, and they also discuss the results of these trials.
Network and standards
Two main transmission technologies are used to communicate
sensors with WSN, ZigBee and Bluetooth. The main
feature of these standards is the low power consumption
which is a basic feature of WSN.
There are two main transmission technologies that are used
in order to communicate sensors at the WSN, ZigBee and
Bluetooth. The main feature about these standards is the low
power consumption which is a basic feature at the WSN.
Other alternatives use Radio Frequency (RF)[7], Radio
Frequency IDentification (RFID)[23] or they do not even
mention the transmission technology[24][27] .
CONCLUSSIONS
This paper has presented current systems implementations
in the WSN domain. There are several applications that
focus on telemonitoring and fall detection that use wireless
technologies like ZigBee or BlueTooth.
As mentioned, these implementations would benefit from
more trials, lasting longer and with more participants to
provide more detailed information about system autonomy
and comfort. Guaranteeing the privacy and authenticity of the
transmitted data is also an important objective. To achieve
this, security mechanisms have to be implemented.