Project on Remote Patient Monitoring System

The patient monitoring system can be defined as the system used for monitoring physiological signals that include parameters like the electro-cardio graph (ECG), respiratory signals, invasive and noninvasive blood pressure, body temperature, gases related parameters, etc.

Patient monitoring systems are considered as a part of M-health technology. These can also be named as m-health or mobile health. These systems are used for the practice of medical and public health with the help of mobile devices. These monitoring systems can be used onsite or remotely.

Patient monitoring is applicable in different situations when a patient is in the following conditions:

• In unstable physiological regulatory systems – for instance, in the case of an overdose of anesthesia.
• In a life-threatening condition – for instance, when there is an indication of a heart attack in a patient.
• In a situation leading to the developing of a risky life-threatening condition.
• In a critical physiological state.

Patient monitoring is not a new system in health care as it was first started in the year 1625 for monitoring the body temperature and blood pressure of patients. Subsequently, this system has begun to find its usage and acceptance for monitoring different types of physiological parameters and health-related aspects that are being performed until now.

Nowadays patient monitoring systems are available in two forms:

• Single-parameter monitoring system
• The multi-parameter monitoring system

Single parameter monitoring system: This system is used for measuring the blood pressure of a human body, monitoring ECG, monitoring SPO2 (oxygen saturation in the blood), and so on.

Multi-parameter monitoring system: This system is used for monitoring multiple critical physiological signs of patients by transmitting vital information like ECG, respiration rate and blood pressure, etc. Due to these reasons, multi-parameter patient monitoring systems play a significant role in the field of medical devices.

In the subsequent paragraphs, we are about to discuss the patient monitoring system in detail and to understand this particular concept and topic better, a project as a practical example of the patient monitoring system is also explained briefly.

Patient Monitoring System Project

Automatic Wireless Health Monitoring System in Hospitals for Patients

The project is designed and developed for monitoring patients remotely using a wireless communication system. The main aim of this project is to monitor the body temperature of the patient and display the same to the doctor through RF technology.

In hospitals, patients’ body temperature must need to be monitored constantly, which is usually done by doctors or other paramedical staff. They observe the body temperature of patients’ constantly and maintain a record of it.

The components used in this project include an 8051 microcontroller, a power supply unit, a temperature sensor, an RF transmitter, a receiver module, and an LCD display. The microcontroller is used as a central processing unit for monitoring the body temperature of the patients. The working of this project is explained with the help of a block diagram, which consists of a power supply block that supplies power to the entire circuit, and a temperature sensor that calculates a patient’s body temperature.

In the transmitter section, the temperature sensor is used to read the body temperature of the patients continuously and the data is sent to the microcontroller. The transmitted data is encoded into serial data over the air through the RF module and the body temperature values of the patients are displayed on the LCD. With the help of an antenna placed at the transmitter end, the data is transmitted to the receiver section.

In the receiver section, a receiver is used to receive the data and the received data is decoded by using a decoder, and the transmitted data is compared with the data stored in the 8051 microcontrollers, and then the data is displayed on the LCD screen. The receiver module placed at the doctor’s chamber continuously reads the data and the patient’s body temperature data is displayed on the LCD, wirelessly.

Remote Patient Monitoring System

RPM is a technology used for monitoring patients outside of conventional clinical settings- for example, in the home settings, which may lead to an increase in the care of patients and a decrease in the healthcare delivery cost. By using this technology, we can reduce the number of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and duration of hospital stays.

The remote patient monitoring system is the new technology used for monitoring heartbeats of the patients for knowing the appropriate rate of the heartbeat. This remote monitoring system is an alternative for a heartbeat monitoring system with a stethoscope. In the case of the stethoscope method, human presence is necessary to check the heartbeat, whereas this problem can be overcome by monitoring patients remotely with the use of wireless technology.

Patient Monitoring Using GSM and Zigbee for Hospitals and Old Age Homes

This project aims to send messages during emergencies especially when a patient is alone at home or while the patient is traveling. If a person met with an accident or sudden heart stroke, then an alerting message is sent to the mobile with the help of a GSM modem.

This remote monitoring system allows the doctors to monitor the health status of the patients whenever a change occurs in the patient’s health condition. Doctors and other hospital staff can’t work on a single patient. In this system, we are making use of a Zigbee communication module for helping out the doctors to take care of multiple patients’ health status by monitoring them remotely.

The characteristics of a Zigbee technology are that it is a low cost, low power and ranges up to 100 meters. By keeping this range in mind, the Zigbee technology is the best choice for wireless monitoring and controlling network in health monitoring systems.

In this system, we are using a microcontroller, a Zigbee module, a temperature sensor, and a heartbeat sensor; the temperature sensor continuously monitors the patient body temperature, and the heartbeat sensor monitors the heartbeat rate of the patient. A GSM module interfaced with the microcontroller continuously sends the body temperature of the patient to a doctor who has a Zigbee enabled with a microcontroller. The normal range of the temperature and heartbeats are programmed in the microcontroller. If the temperature range exceeds that parameter, it passes an alert message.

This is an efficient way of a hospital management system wherein a doctor sends control signals from his wireless terminal to the patient terminal. In the same way, the patient’s health condition can be sent to his or her family members in the form of SMS through mobile phones.

Here in this article, we have covered the patient monitoring system and a project related to this system has also covered a remote patient monitoring system using GSM technology. We are very thankful to you for spending your valuable time on this article. Furthermore, for any help or support, you can contact us by commenting in the comment section given below.

Photo Credits:

• Patient Monitoring System by medicaldevice-network
• Remote Patient Monitoring System by medi-code