scholarly journals Intelligent Medical System with Low-Cost Wearable Monitoring Devices to Measure Basic Vital Signals of Admitted Patients

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 918
Author(s):  
Siraporn Sakphrom ◽  
Thunyawat Limpiti ◽  
Krit Funsian ◽  
Srawouth Chandhaket ◽  
Rina Haiges ◽  
...  

This article presents the design of a low-cost Wireless Body Sensor Network (WBSN) for monitoring vital signs including a low-cost smart wristwatch that contains an ESP-32 microcontroller and three sensors: heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and body temperature (BT), and an Internet of Things (IoT) platform. The vital signs data are processed and displayed on an OLED screen of the patient’s wristwatch and sent the data over a wireless connection (Wi-Fi) and a Cloud Thing Board system, to store and manage the data in a data center. The data can be analyzed and notified to medical staff when abnormal signals are received from the sensors based on a set parameters from specialists. The proposed low-cost system can be used in a wide range of applications including field hospitals for asymptotic or mild-condition COVID-19 patients as the system can be used to screen those patients out of symptomatic patients who require more costly facilities in a hospital with considerably low expense and installation time, also suitable for bedridden patients, palliative care patients, etc. Testing experiments of a 60-person sample size showed an acceptable accuracy level compared with standard devices when testing with 60 patient-samples with the mean errors heart rate of 1.22%, systolic blood pressure of 1.39%, diastolic blood pressure of 1.01%, and body temperature of 0.13%. According to testing results with 10 smart devices connected with the platform, the time delay caused by the distance between smart devices and the router is 10 s each round with the longest outdoor distance of 200 m. As there is a short-time delay, it does not affect the working ability of the smart system. It is still making the proposed system be able to show patient’s status and function in emergency cases.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1357633X2110118
Author(s):  
Nobuyuki Kagiyama ◽  
Makoto Hiki ◽  
Yuya Matsue ◽  
Tomotaka Dohi ◽  
Wataru Matsuzawa ◽  
...  

Introduction In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the development of a system that would prevent the infection of healthcare providers is in urgent demand. We sought to investigate the feasibility and validity of a telemedicine-based system in which healthcare providers remotely check the vital signs measured by patients with COVID-19. Methods Patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 measured and uploaded their vital signs to secure cloud storage. Additionally, the respiratory rates were monitored using a mat-type sensor placed under the bed. We assessed the time until the values became available on the Cloud and the agreements between the patient-measured vital signs and simultaneous healthcare provider measurements. Results Between 26 May–23 September 2020, 3835 vital signs were measured and uploaded to the cloud storage by the patients ( n=16, median 72 years old, 31% women). All patients successfully learned how to use these devices with a 10-minute lecture. The median time until the measurements were available on the cloud system was only 0.35 min, and 95.2% of the vital signs were available within 5 min of the measurement. The agreement between the patients’ and healthcare providers’ measurements was excellent for all parameters. Interclass coefficient correlations were as follows: systolic (0.92, p<0.001), diastolic blood pressure (0.86, p<0.001), heart rate (0.89, p<0.001), peripheral oxygen saturation (0.92, p<0.001), body temperature (0.83, p<0.001), and respiratory rates (0.90, p<0.001). Conclusions Telemedicine-based self-assessment of vital signs in patients with COVID-19 was feasible and reliable. The system will be a useful alternative to traditional vital sign measurements by healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Fiber Bragg Grating sensors have a wide range of applications, ranging from their use for health monitoring, in medical applications and also as biomedical sensors, among others. Moreover, since fiber Bragg gratings have many advantages that qualify them to be of great benefit, of course, the most important of these applications are vital signs of human health condition Such as blood pressure, heart rate (pulse rate), and body temperature. The Vital-signs are noticeable variables. The temperature and blood pressure are changed according to the physical, involuntary, nervous and psychological state of the person. Therefore, the measurement of vital signs is very necessary, In this work, fiber Bragg grating sensor has been designed and simulated to study the performance of fiber Bragg grating sensor as a Body temperature of human beings ranged from (35°C to 40°C, which is from hypothermia to hyperthermia) and blood pressure that ranged between lower and higher extremities (40 to 190 mmHg ) from hypotension to hypertension, using optigrating and optisystem simulation softwar. The designed sensor was very sensitive to human temperature and blood pressure ranges which were 13.632 pm/oC and 15.75 pm/mmHg, respectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (20) ◽  
pp. e2100466118
Author(s):  
Dennis Ryu ◽  
Dong Hyun Kim ◽  
Joan T. Price ◽  
Jong Yoon Lee ◽  
Ha Uk Chung ◽  
...  

Vital signs monitoring is a fundamental component of ensuring the health and safety of women and newborns during pregnancy, labor, and childbirth. This monitoring is often the first step in early detection of pregnancy abnormalities, providing an opportunity for prompt, effective intervention to prevent maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Contemporary pregnancy monitoring systems require numerous devices wired to large base units; at least five separate devices with distinct user interfaces are commonly used to detect uterine contractility, maternal blood oxygenation, temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and fetal heart rate. Current monitoring technologies are expensive and complex with implementation challenges in low-resource settings where maternal morbidity and mortality is the greatest. We present an integrated monitoring platform leveraging advanced flexible electronics, wireless connectivity, and compatibility with a wide range of low-cost mobile devices. Three flexible, soft, and low-profile sensors offer comprehensive vital signs monitoring for both women and fetuses with time-synchronized operation, including advanced parameters such as continuous cuffless blood pressure, electrohysterography-derived uterine monitoring, and automated body position classification. Successful field trials of pregnant women between 25 and 41 wk of gestation in both high-resource settings (n = 91) and low-resource settings (n = 485) demonstrate the system’s performance, usability, and safety.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  

Vital signs are patient’s health status indicators and their measurement and interpretation at opportune moments contribute to the early diagnosis of clinical deterioration and implementation of interventions. The IQG surveyors observed the lack of registration of vital signs during their visits, noting the need to evaluate this practice in IQG’s Health Services Accreditation Programs. The objective of this study is to verify the recording of vital signs in the patient’s chart considering the completeness at the opportune moments. The data was obtained between April 2017 and March 2018 by IQG surveyors during national and international accreditation visits to 141 hospitals participating in Health Services Accreditation Programs. The recording completeness of the eight vital signs (blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate, body temperature, pain, pulse oximetry, level of consciousness and urinary output) was checked by hospital. At each visit, between 05 and 07 records of patients admitted to open clinical and surgical care units were randomly examined. In the absence of registration of vital signs in one of the medical records, it was considered that the hospital does not present completeness. Evidence for the recording of vital signs at the appropriate moments (hospitalization, transfer of care, immediate postoperative period, nursing prescription and risk score result) defined the completeness criterion in a sample of 141 hospitals. The data were collected from 141 hospitals. At appropriate times, heart rate and blood pressure was recorded in 96% of hospitals and heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature in 81%. The completeness of vital signs at opportune moments was evidenced in 65% of the hospitals. The next challenge of IQG will be to understand the reasons that lead the nursing team to neglect the measurement, recording and interpretation of vital signs in clinical practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-177
Author(s):  
Zulkifli Ahmad ◽  
Mohd Najeb Jamaludin ◽  
Kamaruzaman Soeed

Vital sign monitoring is an important body measurement to identify health condition and diagnose any disease and illness. In sports, physical exercise will contribute to the changes of the physiological systems, specifically for the vital signs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of physical fatigue exercise on the vital sign parameters. This is significant for the fitness identification and prediction of each individual when performing an exercise. Five male subjects with no history of injuries and random BMI were selected from students of biomedical engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Based on the relationship between physical movement and physiology, the parameters considered were heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. Subjects were required to run on the treadmill at an initial speed of 4 km/h with an increase of 1 km/h at every 2 minutes interval. The effect of exercise was marked according to the fatigue protocol where the subject was induced to the maximum condition of performance. All parameters were measured twice, for pre and post exercise-induced protocol. The analysis of relationship of each parameter between pre and post fatigue was p<0.05. The results revealed that the heart rate and gap between blood pressure’s systolic and diastolic were greater for all categories except underweight, where the systolic blood pressure dropped to below 100mmHg at the end of exercise. Also, the body temperature was slightly declined to balance the thermoregulatory system with sweating. Hence, the vigorous physical movement could contribute to the active physiological system based on body metabolism. Heart rate and blood pressure presented significant effects from the fatiguing exercise whereas the body temperature did not indicate any distinguishable impact. The results presented might act as the basis of reference for physical exercise by monitoring the vital sign parameters.


Iproceedings ◽  
10.2196/16250 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. e16250
Author(s):  
Nicole Polanco ◽  
Sharon Odametey ◽  
Neda Derakhshani ◽  
Mark Khachaturian ◽  
Connor Devoe ◽  
...  

Background Wellness devices for health tracking have gained popularity in recent years. Additionally, portable and readily accessible wellness devices have several advantages when compared to traditional medical devices found in clinical environments The VitalWellness device is a portable wellness device that can potentially aide vital sign measuring for those interested in tracking their health. Objective In this diagnostic accuracy study, we evaluated the performance of the VitalWellness device, a wireless, compact, non-invasive device that measures four vital signs (blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), and body temperature using the index finger and forehead. Methods Volunteers age ≥18 years were enrolled to provide blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), and body temperature. We recruited participants with vital signs that fell within and outside of the normal physiological range. A sub-group of eligible participants were asked to undergo an exercise test, aerobic step test and/or a paced breathing test to analyze the VitalWellness device’s performance on vital signs outside of the normal physiological ranges for HR and RR. Vital signs measurements were collected with the VitalWellness device and FDA-approved reference devices. Mean, standard deviation, mean difference, standard deviation of difference, standard error of mean difference, and correlation coefficients were calculated for measurements collected; these measurements were plotted on a scatter plot and a Bland-Altman plot. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the performance of the VitalWellness device by gender, skin color, finger size, and in the presence of artifacts. Results 265 volunteers enrolled in the study and 2 withdrew before study completion. Majority of the volunteers were female (62%), predominately white (63%), graduated from college or post college (67%), and employed (59%). There was a moderately strong linear relationship between VitalWellness BP and reference BP (r=0.7, P<.05) and VitalWellness RR and reference RR measurements (r=0.7, P<.05). The VitalWellness HR readings were significantly in line with the reference HR readings (r=0.9, P<.05). There was a weaker linear relationship between VitalWellness temperature and reference temperature (r=0.3, P<.05). There were no differences in performance of the VitalWellness device by gender, skin color or in the presence of artifacts. Finger size was associated with differential performance for RR. Conclusions Overall, the VitalWellness device performed well in taking BP, HR, and RR when compared to FDA-approved reference devices and has potential serve as a wellness device. To test adaptability and acceptability, future research may evaluate user’s interactions and experiences with the VitalWellness device at home. In addition, the next phase of the study will evaluate transmitting vital sign information from the VitalWellness device to an online secured database where information can be shared with HCPs within seconds of measurement.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meixia Du ◽  
Jie Zhao ◽  
Xiaochun Yin ◽  
Nadi Zhang ◽  
Guisen Zheng

Background: Assessing the impact of vital signs (blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation) on the death of patients with new coronavirus pneumonia would provide a simple and convenient method for the monitoring of subsequent illness, and therefore, in some degree reduce treatment costs and increase the cure rate clinically. Methods: Six databases were retrieved. The software R 3.6.2 was used for meta-analysis of the included literature. Results: 12 studies were included, which comprise 8996 patients affected with COVID-19 infection. The meta-analysis study found that blood pressure (MAP, SBP and DBP), heart rate, respiration rate and SpO2 are the risk factors for disease progression in patients with COVID-19. Among them, the increase in MAP and the decrease in SpO2 have the greatest impact on the death of patients with COVID-19 [MAP: MD = 5.66, 95% CI (0.34, 10.98), SpO2: MD = -5.87, 95% CI (-9.17, -2.57), P = 0.0005]. However, comparing the body temperature of the death group and the survival group found that the body temperature was not statistically significant between the two groups [body temperature: MD = 0.21, 95% CI (-0.01, 0.43), P = 0.0661]. Conclusion: The increase in MAP, heart rate and respiratory rate, as well as the decrease in SBP, DBP and SpO2 are all independent risk factors for death in patients with COVID-19. These factors are simple and easy to monitor, and individualized treatment can be given to patients in time, reducing the mortality rate and improving treatment efficiency.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Kuhrt ◽  
Paul T Seed ◽  
Andrew H Shennan

Abstract Background: Malaria is a significant threat to refugee populations. Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda hosts 223 000 of Uganda’s 1.4 million refugees, vulnerable to malaria due to crowded conditions and limited access to preventative measures and health care. Early detection and referral of suspected malaria cases is key to reducing associated morbidity and mortality. We therefore aimed to evaluate shock index (heart rate/ systolic blood pressure), calculated by the CRADLE Vital Signs Alert (VSA) device, an easy-to-use blood pressure and heart rate monitor, for detection of malaria as grounds for whether the device could be used for low cost identification and referral of patients by non-medically trained Village Health Team workers (VHTs).Methods: CRADLE VSA devices and related training were delivered to all health facilities and VHTs in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement from April to August 2018. CRADLE VSA readings was performed as part of routine patient assessment. CRADLE VSA data (blood pressure, heart rate) and assigned diagnoses were collected from health facility data record books and shock index calculated for each case. Cases were grouped into predefined disease categories, including malaria and severe malaria. A control group consisted of refugees undergoing asymptomatic screening using the CRADLE VSA. Average shock index was calculated for cases and controls and prespecified disease categories, and predictive statistics to evaluate shock index for prediction of malaria and severe malaria.Results: Five hundred and eighty-seven CRADLE VSA devices were delivered. Malaria accounted for 26% (915/3577) of cases and had the highest shock index compared to other disease categories. Positive likelihood ratios for shock index using a threshold of greater than or equal to 0.9 were 5 and 11 for malaria and severe malaria respectively.Conclusion: Malaria accounted for over a quarter of cases. Positive likelihood ratios indicated that patients with shock index greater than or equal to 0.9 were 5 and 11 times more likely to be suffering from malaria and severe malaria respectively, indicating that the CRADLE VSA could be used by non-medically trained VHTs to identify patients likely to have malaria, and those most at risk of severe disease needing urgent referral. Trial Registration: This is an observational study and therefore does not have or require a trial registration. Appropriate permissions were granted by UN Refugee Council, Ministry of Health and Office of the Prime Minister.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Kuhrt ◽  
Paul T Seed ◽  
Andrew H Shennan

Abstract BackgroundMalaria is a significant threat to refugee populations. Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda hosts 223 000 of Uganda’s 1.4 million refugees, vulnerable to malaria due to crowded conditions and limited access to preventative measures and health care. Early detection and referral of suspected malaria cases is key to reducing associated morbidity and mortality. We therefore aimed to evaluate shock index (heart rate/ systolic blood pressure), calculated by the CRADLE Vital Signs Alert (VSA) device, an easy-to-use blood pressure and heart rate monitor, for detection of malaria as grounds for whether the device could be used for low cost identification and referral of patients by non-medically trained Village Health Team workers (VHTs).Methods CRADLE VSA devices and related training were delivered to all health facilities and VHTs in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement from April to August 2018. CRADLE VSA readings was performed as part of routine patient assessment. CRADLE VSA data (blood pressure, heart rate) and assigned diagnoses were collected from health facility data record books and shock index calculated for each case. Cases were grouped into predefined disease categories, including malaria and severe malaria. A control group consisted of refugees undergoing asymptomatic screening using the CRADLE VSA. Average shock index was calculated for cases and controls and prespecified disease categories, and predictive statistics to evaluate shock index for prediction of malaria and severe malaria.ResultsFive hundred and eighty-seven CRADLE VSA devices were delivered. Malaria accounted for 26% (915/3577) of cases and had the highest shock index compared to other disease categories. Positive likelihood ratios for shock index using a threshold of greater than or equal to 0.9 were 5 and 11 for malaria and severe malaria respectively.ConclusionMalaria accounted for over a quarter of cases. Positive likelihood ratios indicated that patients with shock index greater than or equal to 0.9 were 5 and 11 times more likely to be suffering from malaria and severe malaria respectively, indicating that the CRADLE VSA could be used by non-medically trained VHTs to identify patients likely to have malaria, and those most at risk of severe disease needing urgent referral. Trial RegistrationThis is an observational study and therefore does not have or require a trial registration. Appropriate permissions were granted by UN Refugee Council, Ministry of Health and Office of the Prime Minister.


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