A cost effective and smart framework for Health monitoring

Project Title

A cost effective and smart framework for Health monitoring

Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject Summary Summary 

In this project we want to develop a system comprising of sensors and microprocessor for diagnostic and monitoring of World Health Organization (WHO) declared global diseases. Being a Third World country, Pakistan is lacking in some of the major social sectors and health is one of them. Some of the critical issues related to health sector in Pakistan includes: 

•    Redundant medical infrastructure
•    Non development of low-cost and advance diagnosis equipment’s.
•    Lack of competency among healthcare professionals. 
•    Expensive medical facilities.
•    Non availability of latest diagnosis equipment’s

In this project we are working to positively contribute to the improvement of our health care system through the development of low-cost and smart system for disease diagnosis, monitoring and emergency alert system. Overall, our project consists of three different parts as data collection, data processing and knowledge and action as shown in Figure 1.  

Figure 1. Low-cost and smart system for diagnosis and monitoring for fatal diseases.

In the following five steps, all the aspects and working of the project is summarized. Flow chart of the project to describe the working and integration of its different parts is shown in Figure 2. 

1. Acquiring data

Firstly, data would be obtained through temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and ECG sensors. The data collected from these sensors provide basic diagnostic for many severe diseases like cardiovascular dysfunction, heart attack, hypertension, blood pressure etc.

2. Pre-processing

Secondly, the acquired data converted to a un noised form so it could be reliable and cleared from fluctuations. This processing includes removing of noise and detrending the graphical data. 

3. Post-processing

Third thing would be data analysis through some algorithms to diagnose that its everything alright of undertest person or something wrong with the patient as unhealthy or critical. This would process the un noised data of sensors to easy-to-understand data in terms of results so that a lay man could also understand its results in worst conditions.

4. Results Display and Emergency System

After doing all the processing, all the acquired data would be displayed at LCDs and Mobile App. In this a decision making would also be done based on the results of the under-test person with comparison to the thresholds of diseases as he/she required any guidance from Physician or Emergency response. 

5. Telemedicine

The processed data would be communicated to mobile App so that it could easily be communicated to the Physician for consultation, prescription, and emergency response purposes.

Figure 2. Integration and working of different parts of the project.

Our goal

Our primary goal is to provide a low-cost and smart system for diagnosis, disease monitoring and testing of fatal diseases in early and emergency conditions so that the lifes of humans would be more secured and redused the human loss. 

Project Objectives Objectives

Health is one of the global challenges for humanity. Healthcare optimization has become increasingly important in the current era, where numerous challenges are posed by population aging phenomena and the demand for a higher quality of healthcare services. The better healthcare can contribute and play their part in the socio-economic problem and advancement of the country. In the condition of poor health, one cannot contribute well to the country’s development. It is disheartening that the quality of healthcare in Pakistan is a distant dream. Most of the population of the country has no access to the hospitals and the basics health care facilities. No diagnosis facility available at basic health care centers. Many people die at their home and no one knows the disease and some people moved to the hospitals at the last stages of their diseases and unable to get recovered. All the burden of the patients shifted to major cities hospitals and that unable to bear the pressure of the patients. Almost all public hospitals lack the very basic diagnosis and disease monitoring facilities. This socio-economic problem could easily be managed by providing the basic diagnosis and physician facilities at local health care centers. 

Here is a great medical and economic need to support the diagnosis of a wide range of debilitating and indeed fatal non-communicable diseases, like Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), other heart and blood related diseases. To address this need, we put forward the idea that the combination of Heart Rate (HR), ECG and blood pressure measurements, Internet of Things (IoT), and forms a Heart Health Monitoring Service Platform. The major objective of our project is to solve the problem of basic health care that we are facing locally in our routine life’s and our targeted major problem are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Targeted potential healthcare problems.

Our primary objective is to develop a low-cost and smart system for early diagnosis, disease monitoring and testing of heart related fatal diseases. The project would be designed by focusing on the cost and usability so that it would be in reach of everyone as easiest and nearest as possible and user friendly. In addition to that we are focusing on establishing a 24-hr link between patient and doctor so that there would be lesser deaths due to shortage of time, transportation, non-availability of hospitals and money. Most importantly, serving our country by making the lives of its citizens more secure in the wake of creating a better future. Quantifiable objectives of our project are:

1. To develop a sensor system consists of low-cost sensors for data collection
2. To develop a setup to process the acquired data of sensors
3. To develop a complete system for early diagnosis with LCD display
4. To develop an emergency system for critical conditions
5. To develop a telemedicine system setup with mobile App

Project Implementation Method Implementation detail of Project

Initially project is divided into three basic parts as data collection, data processing and knowledge & action for its implementation as shown in Figure 1. Firstly, the selection of sensors was finalized by studding the literature and aspects of sensors. The sensors have been purchased from by looking into different aspects as their costs, capability towards integration and precision of results. Furfur more in the first step we are working on the integration of the purchased sensors with the microprocessors so the data could easily, smoothly, and accurately acquire. This also includes the integration of displays with the processors so that the results could be displayed. In this part we are working on the integration of the modules individually to check their performance and functionality. The calibration of each sensor is carrying out before their integration towards final system. We also working on the replacement of the sensors that did not passed the essential quality checks and would be replaced with the best possible alternative available. The finally integrated system would the again be subjected to quality checks to ensure that performance of each sensor is as good as it has been when they are working individually.

The data processing part of the project further divided into two parts as pre- and post-processing of sensors data signals. We are working on different parts in parallel to complete the project on time. Two of us are working on the pre- and post-processing of ECG and heart rate signals. The pre-processing includes majorly the noise removal from real time sensors data. Post-processing includes the classification of the un noised data so that the data would be easily understandable to a lay man and reliable decision making would be done on data in different possible conditions. We are working on it in MATLAB and Python so that we system would be capable of fast processing of acquired data and made a possible decision as fastest as possible. 

In future we would develop a mobile App to display the processed data and it could easily be communicated to a Physician for consultation and prescription. This part also includes the integration of our system with family of the user so that a communication would be possible thought text messages in worst conditions. The projects also include the integration of system to ambulance system so that in worst conditions the patient would easily be transferred to the nearest hospitals in emergency condition. We are working on the implementation of different parts of projects in parallel. The overall flow chart of the implementation of the projects from start to the completion with all steps in sequential manner is shown in Figure 4. 

Figure 4. Flow chart of Implementation of the development of Low-cost and smart system for health monitoring.  

Benefits of the Project Benefits 

The purpose of designing this project is that as we know for many health care systems in the developing countries, the provisions for timely treatment to the life-threatening emergencies have not been of priority. It is important to strengthen the emergency responsive systems for medical care in these countries. As according to World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 wherein the 33.5% of deaths are due to cardiac, tuberculosis, road accidents and lower respiratory problems while 66.5% are due to various other diseases or infections. The health care system of third-word countries is not developed enough to efficiently diagnose and treat such ailments. The health care system of Pakistan also suffers from the same shortcomings. The even basic diagnostic facilities are not available in large parts of rural Pakistan. There is a dire need of low-cost diagnostic tools for such communities all around third-world countries. In this regard we are looking to develop a low-cost and smart diagnostic system for heart diseases, and blood pressure. To overcome these health problems, the concept of cost effective and smart healthcare monitoring system has been designed to promote interaction between all parties in the healthcare field, ensure that participants get the services they need, help the parties make informed decisions, and facilitate the rational allocation of resources. This project can benefit the society in the following ways:

1. The availability of smart and low-cost health monitoring systems to the community would increase the early of fatal diseases in start as in non-swear conditions. This would decrease the pressure of non-swear patients from the smaller number of hospitals. 
2. The availability of smart diagnosis system in rural and distant areas would improve the life by scientific profess of the diseases and moved out them from myths. 
3. Early diagnosis of fatal heart diseases like CVDs would save the preventable life loss. 
4. The project would be easy to use so that a lay man can use it its own for monitoring and testing of heart and blood related parameters and it would reduce the non-availability of health care staff and professionals. 
5. The system would be integrated to family, physician and ambulance in case of emergency condition so that timely measures could be taken to rescue the patients from swear conditions. 
6. Our project will be extremely helpful for effectively and timely diagnosis of aforementioned diseases. Moreover, even for the healthy population, our to-be-developed device will be valuable to proper and regular monitoring of health.
7. The telemedicine part of the project would help patients to have direct consultation with Physician to maintain their health without compromising time and resources. 
8. Last but not the least, owing to its integration with emergency services, we believe our project will be able to save numerous lives by promptly intimating them in critical times.

 
 

Technical Details of Final Deliverable Final Deliverables 

In this project, we would develop a smart framework and system for health monitoring to be used for the early diagnosis, disease monitoring, and emergency alerts of fatal diseases. The system would consist of low-cost sensors for diagnosis of blood pressure, temperature, and heart diseases to resolve the issue of non-availability of early and swear condition diagnostics equipment in the majority of our rural, basic, remote area and private health care centers. The availability of early diagnosis at basic and local healthcare centers would decrease the pressure of non-swear personals from the hospitals and would save lives. The system would consist of an easy-to-use mobile interface integrated with sensors through a microprocessor. The sensor would communicate with the microprocessor and feed it with real-time data of the patient. The real-time data would be processed at microprocessor through different algorithms of pre-and post-processing to obtain the useful data from the input at a real-time scale. The monitored parameters of diseases would be displayed at the screen/LCD/monitor for on spot monitoring. An app would also be developed to monitor the microprocessor's processed data. To understand the result obtained from the system to a layman, we would use alarms and colors for different indications of diseases at different conditions as normal, diseased/unhealthy, and swear.  The system would include an emergency system embedded into it. The emergency system intelligently decides that the patient required the emergency treatment or not based on the results of tests obtained from the sensors. In case of a swear condition, the system would automatically send an alert to the relatives of the patient, nearest hospitals to take necessary measures, and ambulance system. The system would also include an option that if the patient is unhealthy and s/he wants to consult with the physician through telemedicine platform then he would be able to share his test results to the physician from the diseased monitoring app and the physician can suggest the necessary measures to the patient by seeing its results in pictures. The list of deliverables is the following:

1. Low-cost and smart system of sensors and microprocessors for disease diagnosis and monitoring system with an easy-to-use interface.
2. A system real-time monitoring of patient/s through sensors and microprocessors and data sharing to Physician for necessary action to save lives from mobile App. 
3. Disease emergency alert system for swear and emergency conditions in integration with sensors and microprocessor. 

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry HealthOther Industries IT , Medical Core Technology OthersOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI), Internet of Things (IoT)Sustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduced InequalityRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	78750
Arduino Uno	Equipment	3	1000	3000
Arduino Mega	Equipment	2	2000	4000
Raspberry Pi	Equipment	1	20000	20000
ECG Electrodes	Equipment	5	2000	10000
Oximeter	Equipment	3	1000	3000
Temperature sensor	Equipment	2	1000	2000
Analogue LCD	Equipment	4	1000	4000
Heartbeat sensors	Equipment	3	1200	3600
Digital LCD	Equipment	4	400	1600
ESP 8286	Equipment	3	400	1200
DHT11	Equipment	3	300	900
DS18820	Equipment	2	300	600
Bluetooth Module	Equipment	3	300	900
Digital Oximeter for calibration	Equipment	1	1500	1500
Blood Pressure System for Calibration	Equipment	1	2000	2000
Arduino Nano	Equipment	2	400	800
Blood Pressure Sensor	Equipment	2	600	1200
Breard board	Equipment	3	150	450
Female to Female and Male to Male wires	Miscellaneous	100	5	500
Resistors and Capacitors	Equipment	50	10	500
PCBs Preparation (PCB sheets, solutions, etc),	Equipment	1	2000	2000
Stationary	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000
Printing	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000
Solder Iron & stand	Equipment	1	1000	1000
Solder wire and paste	Miscellaneous	2	500	1000
Overheads (traveling, delivery costs, dollar overheads etc.)	Miscellaneous	1	4000	4000
mobile App registration	Equipment	1	5000	5000