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Healthcare Portable Devices
VPN protocol. A validation phase of this system
was conducted in laboratories in 2003 leading to
the refinement of some of the components. No
reports have been found on studies conducted
in real settings using the MEDIVILLE system.
Another home monitoring system was pro-
posed and developed by Dobrescu, et al. (2009). It
is a wireless sensor network (WSN) that possesses
essential elements for several medical applica-
tions. The WSN collects data according to the
physician and patient's specifications allowing
for continuous home monitoring and better diag-
nosis. Tasks to be done at home by the patients
are also made easier; for example, remote device
control, medicine reminders, object location, and
emergency communication. The architecture is
multi-tiered, with both lightweight mobile com-
ponents and more powerful stationary devices.
Sensors are heterogeneous, and all integrate into
the home network. Examples of missions where
the WSNs can quickly make an impact are sleep
apnea where blood oxygenation, breathing, heart
rate, and ECG are continuously monitored and
cardiac health where heart rate and rhythm are
monitored for any abnormalities. Extensive tests
have been made to quantify the efficiency and
reliability of this monitoring system with respect
to the physiological signals. The results obtained
have confirmed the expected performance: reli-
ability and accuracy of parameter acquisition in
working conditions conform to accepted medical
requirements, specifications and standards; signal
processing such as noise reduction, parameter
extraction and data fusion give sufficient infor-
mation for decision making; in-house wireless
communication is adequately reliable and the
transmission range meets the expectations. Finally
the overall power consumption that is necessary for
the operation of accelerometers, signal processing
and sensors in a small portable system has been
achieved with the use of novel power-management
systems, which extend battery life to years.
Thiruvengada, et al. (2008) presented the
design and the implementation of a system that
A broad range of healthcare services has evolved
to meet the needs of a changing population. The
services and technologies include some portable
wireless monitoring devices, designed to offer
more affordable solutions for the current health-
care system such as daily activity monitoring,
personal emergency response systems, sensors
that signal an alarm once the patient bypasses
normal physiological measures, among many
others. The following section includes a review of
existing portable wireless devices for healthcare
use in general.
The MEDIVILLE Project (Baldinger et al.,
2004) is a system that offers a technical solution
for the home tele-surveillance of elderly persons
and cardiac persons who need regular observation
in their everyday life. It is composed of a wireless
monitoring portable device held by the patient at
home and a remote surveillance server located
in the surveillance centre. The wireless portable
device, fixed on the patient's belt, is connected
to several biomedical sensors in contact with the
patient's body. When the patient at home is suf-
fering from a malaise, a cardiac attack, or a fall,
the patient's portable device will generate an
alarm and immediately transmit it to the surveil-
lance centre where a medical team monitors the
patients 24 over 24 hours. The wireless portable
device aims at monitoring the patient at home
through different biomedical measurements: pa-
tient's position (lying down, sitting, or standing),
activity, cardiac status, and urgency call button.
The portable device is connected by radio to an
in-door PC-base station placed in the main room
of the patient's house. Continuously receiving
the signals from the portable device through a
VHF radio link, the base station utilizes them to
detect potential illness situations and, only in that
case and after an automatic decision process, it
generates an alarm towards the remote server. On
the other side the PC-base station is connected to
the remote server of the surveillance centre using
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