An Implementation of IoT for Healthcare

VII. CONCLUSION
IoT is a combination of various technologies that empower a diverse range of appliances, devices
and objects to interact and communicate with each other using different networking echnologies.
So far, much of the information found on the Internet is supplied by human beings. In case of
IoT smart objects provide the information. There exist a wide variety of applications based on
IoT, including healthcare, which is the primary focus of this work. Healthcare systems makes use
of interconnected smart devices to establish an IoT network for healthcare analysis, patient
monitoring and automatically identifying situations where a physician involvement is needed.

Patient Monitoring System Based on Internet of Things

Abstract
The increased use of mobile technologies and smart devices in the area of health has caused great
impact on the world. Health experts are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits these
technologies bring, thus generating a significant improvement in health care in clinical settings
and out of them. Likewise, countless ordinary users are being served from the advantages of the
MHealth (Mobile Health) applications and E-Health (health care supported by ICT) to improve,
help and assist their health.Applications that have had a major refuge for these users, so intuitive
environment. The Internet of things is increasingly allowing to integrate devices capable of
connecting to the Internet and provide information on the state of health of patients and
provide information in real time to doctors who assist. It is clear that chronic diseases such as
diabetes, heart and pressure among others, are remarkable in the world economic and social level
problem. The aim of this article is to develop an architecture based on an ontology capable of
monitoring the health and workout routine recommendations to patients with chronic diseases.
Conclusion
The system developed patient monitoring based on Internet of things, is an alternative that can be
used to help patients with chronic diseases. Likewise with this set of solutions the aim is to
improve the quality of life of patients,not just monitoring them, but also to enable direct them to
improve their eating habits and workout routines.The context model developed for the system
proved to be efficient when making inferences related to the context,such as recommendations
for taking measures through sensors, as well as recommendations and workout routines
tips to improve the eating habits of patients.

IoT based Remote Patient Health Monitoring System

Abstract
With an improvement in technology and miniaturization of sensors, there have been attempts to
utilize the new technology in various areas to improve the quality of human life. One main area
of research that has seen an adoption of the technology is the healthcare sector. The people in
need of healthcare services find it very expensive this is particularly true in developing countries.
As a result, this project is an attempt to solve a healthcare problem currently society is facing.
The main objective of the project was to design a remote healthcare system. It’s comprised of
three main parts. The first part being, detection of patient’s vitals using sensors, second for
sending data to cloud storage and the last part was providing the detected data for remote
viewing. Remote viewing of the data enables a doctor or guardian to monitor a patient’s health
progress away from hospital premises.
The Internet of Things (IoT) concepts have been widely used to interconnect the available
medical resources and offer smart, reliable, and effective healthcare service to the patients.
Health monitoring for active and assisted living is one of the paradigms that can use the IoT
advantages to improve the patient’s lifestyle. In this project, I have presented an IoT architecture
customized for healthcare applications. The aim of the project was to come up with a Remote
Health Monitoring System that can be made with locally available sensors with a view to making
it affordable if it were to be mass produced.
Hence the proposed architecture collects the sensor data through Arduino microcontroller and
relays it to the cloud where it is processed and analyzed for remote viewing. Feedback actions
based on the analyzed data can be sent back to the doctor or guardian through Email and/or SMS
alerts in case of any emergencies.

Summary of the Study

The remote patient monitoring system was researched, designed and presented the concept of the
Internet of things. Personal physiological data from the patient is collected that simulates fall
detection, heartbeat, temperature, humidity, toxic gas, air quality control, pressure. The readings are
collected in a simple cloud database and can be viewed remotely by a doctor or Healthcare giver. The
data can also be used in research on medical issues affecting the elderly or chronically ill. On the
security of the data, the database system is protected with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
This generates the secret key which can be used to decrypt the patients’ records ensuring that only
authorized personnel access the data. This safeguards the patients’ records from unauthorized users
and hackers who may want to intercept.
13.2 Conclusion
The main objective of the experiment was successfully achieved. All the individual modules like
Heartbeat detection module, fall detection module etc. and remote viewing module gave out the
intended results. 55 The designed system modules can further be optimized and produced to a final
single circuit. More important fact that came up during project design is that all the circuit
components used in the remote health detection system are available easily.
With the development in the integrated circuit industry, Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMs)
and microcontrollers have become affordable, have increased processing speeds, miniaturized and
power efficient. This has led to increased development of embedded systems that the healthcare
specialists are adopting. These embedded systems have also been adopted in the Smartphone
technology. And with increased internet penetration in most developing countries through mobile
phones, and with use of Internet of things (IoT) will become adopted at a faster rate. The Remote
Health Care system utilizes these concepts to come up with a system for better quality of life for
people in society.
From an engineering perspective, the project has seen concepts acquired through the computer
science and embedded study period being practically applied. The Electric circuit analysis
knowledge was used during design and fabrication of the individual modules. Electromagnetic fields
analysis used in the wireless transmission between microcontrollers and Software programming
used during programming of the microcontrollers to come up with a final finished circuit system.

Health Monitoring and Management Using

Internet-of-Things (IoT) Sensing with Cloud-based
Processing: Opportunities and Challenges
Abstract—Among the panoply of applications enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT), smart and
connected health care is a particularly important one. Networked sensors, either worn on the
body or embedded in our living environments, make possible the gathering of rich information
indicative of our physical and mental health. Captured on a continual basis, aggregated, and
effectively mined, such information can bring about a positive transformative change in the
health care landscape. In particular, the availability of data at hitherto unimagined scales and
temporal longitudes coupled with a new generation of intelligent processing algorithms can: (a)
facilitate an evolution in the practice of medicine, from the current post facto diagnose-andtreat
reactive paradigm, to a proactive framework for prognosis of diseases at an incipient stage,
coupled with prevention, cure,and overall management of health instead of disease, (b) enable
personalization of treatment and management options targeted particularly to the specific
circumstances and needs of the individual, and (c) help reduce the cost of health care while
simultaneously improving outcomes. In this paper, we highlight the opportunities and challenges
for IoT in realizing this vision of the future of health care.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

In this paper, we reviewed the current state and projected future directions for integration of
remote health monitoring technologies into the clinical practice of medicine. Wearable
sensors, particularly those equipped with IoT intelligence,offer attractive options for enabling
observation and recording of data in home and work environments, over much longer
durations than are currently done at office and laboratory visits. This treasure trove of data, when
analyzed and presented to physicians in easy-to-assimilate visualizations has the potential
for radically improving healthcare and reducing costs. We highlighted several of the challenges
in sensing, analytics, and visualization that need to be addressed before systems can be
designed for seamless integration into clinical practice.

IoT-Based Information System for Healthcare

Application: Design Methodology Approach
Abstract: Over the last few decades, life expectancy has increased significantly. However,
elderly people who live on their own often need assistance due to mobility difficulties, symptoms
of dementia or other health problems. In such cases, an autonomous supporting system may be
helpful. This paper proposes the Internet of Things (IoT)-based information system for indoor
and outdoor use. Since the conducted survey of related works indicated a lack of methodological
approaches to the design process, therefore a Design Methodology (DM), which approaches the
design target from the perspective of the stakeholders, contracting authorities and potential users,
is introduced. The implemented solution applies the three-axial accelerometer and
magnetometer,Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR), thresholding and the decision trees algorithm.
Such an architecture enables the localization of a monitored person within four room-zones with
accuracy;furthermore, it identifies falls and the activities of lying, standing, sitting and walking.
Based on the identified activities, the system classifies current activities as normal, suspicious or
dangerous,which is used to notify the healthcare staff about possible problems. The real-life
scenarios validated the high robustness of the proposed solution. Moreover, the test results
satisfied both stakeholders and future users and ensured further cooperation with the project.

Survey of Related Work

The Design Methodology (DM) of a product or system has been of interest to many researchers.
Already in 1991, A. McKnight proposed a definition of DM as “… a sequence of activities
required to get from one stage of the design process to another” [3].
R. Prasad and H. Kobayashi, in order to improve hardware description language design
productivity, propose the nine-step multi-methodology design process model consisting of
system specification, system partitioning, modeling or adaptation, component simulation, system
binding,system simulation, pre-synthesis modification, logic synthesis and logic simulation [4].
Their solution enables the diminution of the time required for modeling and simulation-related
activities by 31% and 16%, respectively, compared to the classical hardware description
language-based design.
The design methodology proposed by S. A. Mengel et al. contains the three stages: requirements,
specification and implementation [5]. At the requirements stage, the designers should focus on
the key concept of the problem and propose a graph with the structure of the system. At the
specification stage, they refine the proposed graph into the content flowchart, which should be
easily implementable into the considered system in the last design stage. Moreover, after each
DM stage,the validation and verification should be carried out to ensure that the key concepts
would have been met.
To improve the productivity of the complex electronics system design, H. Eskelinen proposes to
apply two questionnaires to the traditional four-stage electronics system design, which are:
system design, electronics design, mechanical design and design for manufacturing [6]. Those
questionnaires are used to form requirements lists of electronic system components.
F. Wang and M. J. Hannafin state that the design-based research should be “pragmatic,
grounded, interactive, iterative, flexible, integrative, and contextual” [7]. Based on this
assumption they form nine principles of the design-based research: support design with research
from the outset;set practical goals for theory development and develop an initial plan; conduct
the research in representative real-world settings; collaborate closely with participants;
implement research methods systematically and purposefully; analyze data immediately,
continuously and retrospectively; refine designs continually; document contextual influences
with design principles; and validate the generalizability of the design. The suggested DM
approach of M. Ahmad considers five design aspects: the target field failure
rate, expected use environment, expected environment use conditions, expected enclosure use
conditions and expected product internal conditions [9]. The method is applicable to estimate the
target’s lifetime in the Internet of Things (IoT). It uses the probabilistic approach for estimating
hardware reliability with given uncertain use conditions while considering overall system
reliability. Emerging technologies create new opportunities, and the robust monitoring of persons
or things, alike, in indoor and outdoor environments, becomes of interest to many scientific and
industrial applications, where one of the most important is the healthcare domain. However, the
conducted survey reveals that design methodologies, despite their efficacy, have not yet been of
great interest to designers in the field of healthcare information systems in IoT. The emerging
healthcare
applications are possible due to the development in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems
(MEMS),which enable the integration of various devices like actuators, sensor nodes or mobiles
[10,11]. It is preferable that the devices used for monitoring purposes operate wirelessly [12],
forming Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which constitute the substantial part of IoT [13].
WSNs are widely used in healthcare applications due to their advantages and diversity. In [14],
C. Rotariu and V. Manta propose WSN for monitoring patients’ heart rate and oxygen saturation.
W. Y. Chung, S. C. Lee and S. H. Toh embed Electrocardiography (ECG) and blood pressure
sensors into a cellular phone [15].
The wireless body area network is an example of a suitable approach to the IoT healthcare
paradigm. S. -L. Tan, J. Garcia-Guzman and F. Villa-Lopez use Wi-Fi technology to transmit
data about the blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and oxygen saturation to the base
station [16]. J. Wannenburg
and R. Malekianc apply Bluetooth technology and a smartphone for monitoring the patient’s
health parameters [17].
In IoT healthcare applications, one of the most frequently-monitored issues is the localization of
patient or equipment. For this purpose, depending on the application, various methods and
technologies are used. Numerous approaches are based on Received Signal Strength (RSS) [18].
M. Shchekotov uses RSS measurements from several known Wi-Fi access points assuring the
localization accuracy at a four room-zone level on a single floor of a building. In order to
localize an asset in the healthcare environment, the authors of [19] use the existing infrastructure
of the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), extended just with six access point beacons.
Based on Wi-Fi RSS measurements and small Wi-Fi tags, they are able to localize the assets like
wheelchairs, beds, etc.,with an accuracy of about 2 m in the hospital clinic environment of 63 m
× 46 m size.
W. H. Chen et al. use RFID RSS measurements of the reference and monitored tags to estimate
the cost function consisting of the disparity and similarity of RSS between monitored and
reference The authors of [23] focus on patients’ localization, tracking and monitoring in the
nursing institute environment. They use RSS measurements of the ZigBee standard and a particle
filter. As a result, they achieved an average localization error of less than 2 m
in 80% of cases.

Conclusions and Future Work

Due to the lengthening of life expectancy, society is aging, and more and more people live to an
older age. Therefore, it is highly important to assure life quality and safety. Existing and
emerging technologies can provide tools that can support elderly people in their everyday life,
making it easy and safe. This paper concerns the design methodology of such tools especially for
indoor and outdoor localization, health monitoring, fall detection and behavior recognition and
classification. The authors propose the design methodology for the IoT-based home care
information system intended for indoor and outdoor environment use. The presented DM
approaches the home care problem not only from the designer’s perspective, but also considering
the contracting authority’s and potential users’ requirements, which means that apart from the
technical requirements, the design procedure considers the multifarious constraints, including the
lifetime, energy issue, usage comfort and even the price.
The proposed DM was verified with a case study of real-life scenarios where there is a need for
supporting elderly people, especially those of limited mobility living alone. The desire stated by
the stakeholders and future users required the system for identifying people’s position and their
vital signs, but also to be able to recognize basic activities, especially falls, and to classify them
as normal,suspicious or dangerous.
The outcome of the conducted design procedure is the system based on IMU, with a built-in
three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and altimeter. It is also equipped with Wi-Fi,
GPS and heart rate modules. For an in-apartment localization with four room-zone level
resolution, the IMU with PDR algorithm is used. For in-building localization with floor level
accuracy, the BarFi algorithm based on pressure and Wi-Fi fingerprints is proposed. For an
outdoor localization with an accuracy of at least ten meters, the GPS module and PDR algorithm
are applied. In order to detect activities of falling, lying, standing, sitting and walking, the IMU
and thresholding algorithms are used. As a method for classifying activities as normal,
suspicious or dangerous, the authors developed the six-element behavior vector and used it
together with a decision tree algorithm.
The validation procedure performed for the most crucial requirements of the four room-zone
level in apartment localization, fall detection, activity recognition and its classification as
normal, suspicious and dangerous situations proves that the system works according to the
required functionalities and constraints.
The future works concern the verification step, conducted together with the stakeholders and
future users, of designed modules and algorithms for a multi-story building environment and
nearby outdoor environments. Another future improvement of this system could be further
recognition of specific activities like teeth brushing, cooking, watching TV or taking medication.
Such information would be informative for caregivers whether the monitored person skipped a
meal or forgot to take a medication. Moreover, it could be also included in the behavior vector
and inform caregivers about behavior changes within a given period. The other improvement of
the system may concern the usefulness of additional sensors for monitoring vital signs. The
lifetime extension of the device by
means of energy-saving algorithms and methods is another direction for future work.

We-Care: An IoT-based Health Care System

forElderly People
Abstract—In a world with an accelerated population aging,there is an increasingly interest in
developing solutions for the elderly living assistance. The Internet of Things is a new reality
that is completely changing our everyday life, and promises to revolutionize modern healthcare
by enabling a more personalized, preventive and collaborative form of care. Aiming to combine
these two important topics, this work presents an IoT-ready solution for the elderly living
assistance which is able to monitor and register patients vital information as well as to provide
mechanisms to trigger alarms in emergency situations. Its effective lowpower/ low-cost and
wireless characteristics turns this solution suitable to be used anywhere and by anyone, in a
discrete and comfortable wristband. Experiments demonstrated a good system performance for
the implemented functionalities, and regarding the autonomy we obtained an average battery
lifetime of 306 hours (around 12 days). For the working range, the system have proved to
perform well within a range of 60 meters before the out-of-range warning being triggered.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

The world is embracing an unprecedented technological trend for connecting billions of devices.
The Internet of Things is a new paradigm that is enriching our everyday life,and promises to
drive significant changes and cause a huge impact in modern healthcare, by enabling a more
personalized,preventive and collaborative form of care. In this paper we presented We-Care, an
IoT-based health care system designed to monitor and collect vital data on elderly people. The
system is able to detect falls, as well as the absence of vital signs, triggering alerts in case of
emergency situations. The wearable device, to be integrated on a simple, discrete and
comfortable wristband, offers a suitable solution to be used by any elderly person at home. The
developed web application collects all the data retrieved and sent by the wristband to the server,
and is also able to remotely alert the caretaker or medical staffs in the case of emergency events.
The stored data can later be used for analysis, which may help medical staff to trace the
evolution of their patients. The adopted IoT architecture enables the WE-Care system to co-exist
with existing technology, since it follows a standardized protocol stack. Work in the near future
will focus on the addition of new sensors to the wristband in order to collect data from other
vital parameters such as the blood pressure and the heart rate.This will be particularly helpful to
determine the evolution of patient’s medical condition as well as to find patterns that may
indicates the evolution of some disease. Since the system was only tested with 8 We-Watch
wristband nodes, more experiments shall be conducted in order to evaluate the systems behavior,
in terms of performance and connectivity, both at the MAC and transport layers. The results will
help in evaluating the scalability of the solution in terms of the supported number of We-Watch
network nodes, as well as the capacity of the We-Care webserver application to handle such
number of nodes. From a different perspective, we will after look at the privacy and security
issues relating to medical data,and as it flows from the connected ’things’ to the cloud. We
will focus on the low-end devices and develop a TrustZonebased solution, similar to the one that
we develop and propose in [24], for the latest generation of (low-end) ARM Cortex-M
processors (e.g., Cortex-M23).