PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETER MONITORING SYSTEM FOR E-WARD PATIENTS

Abstract

The overall objective of this work is to design and develop a prototype wireless physiological parameter monitoring system which replaces wired connections between sensor points and a central node connected to a data acquisition system, with wireless links. Successful implementation of the fmal system would be of benefit to all involved viz the clinicians as well as the patients as access to, and movement of, the patient would not be impeded by the physical constraints imposed by the cables. The built in e-mail facility in the system would keep the nursing staff, doctors and family informed 24/7 of the health of the patient and call help immediately in case of emergencies. Most aspects of the design would also enable addition of others sensors to the system and make the work relevant to a vast range of applications where movement of sensors is desirable and is otherwise constrained by hard-wired links. The design and implementation of the wireless link and sensor electronics to acquire vital signs form the basis of the WSN (wireless sensor network) based system. A Zigbee protocol (apt for healthcare application) based Wireless Sensor Network has been implemented with Crossbow make motes for deployment. Analogue electronics is used to obtain the signals while PC based software suitable for integration with the selected hardware platform is used along with a GUI to acquire sensor data and display the results. The WSN based system for vital sign monitoring consists of sensor nodes and one receiver and data aggregator base station, connected to a PC via USB port. A sensor node consists of sensors (with associated electronics) for body temperature, blood pressure etc., Atmel microcontroller for processing and Chipcon's 2420 chip as a Zigbee transceiver, The technology offers great promise to be extendable to wearable and in-vivo implantable devices to monitor physiological parameters of the patient and provide healthcare 24hrs a day, both within a clinic and outside its confines where movement of subject is desirable. ii