Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
eHealth attracted great scientific interest in the last decade. Several emerging
technologies are basically supporting this concept realization:
Advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN),
High sophisticated mobile devices with advanced software development platforms
for mobile applications,
Cloud computing.
A first step towards successful eHealth system is RPM , enabling monitoring of pa-
tients inside and outside conventional clinical environment. Successful low-power
wireless sensor networks implementations for RPM and BANs are reported in the
literature, mainly using 802.15.4 radios (ZigBee), and several commercial solutions
are available in the market. In any case, mmWave low-power solutions are also
considered as they can provide drastically faster transfers and possibility for imple-
mentation of more sophisticated sensors capable of real-time capturing of complex
signals and body functions.
Several application scenarios, several application scenarios in biomedical engi-
neering can be realized combining different wireless technologies as WSN, 60 GHz,
UWB and future 5G. Figure 5 illustrates a possible scenario for RPM based on low-
power WSN, 60 GHz and 5G, where multi-interface FFD (fully functional device)
is collecting the parameters of BAN and environment, while 60-GHz link is pro-
viding high-resolution video monitoring of the patient and allowing the patient to
realize high-quality audio/video connections with physician at remote location or to
use eHealth services available in the cloud. In a case of critical parameter conditions
sensed by the BAN, the intelligent FFD device is able to alarm the remote emergency
service and provide further instructions to the patient.
Also, at this point we must emphasize other two emerging technologies as very se-
rious candidates for the future RPM technology: implantable devices and intelligent
pills.
In [ 34 ], the evolution of implantable devices, such as brain electrodes, neurostim-
ulators, etc., and their wiring problems are emphasized, where low-power mmWaves
are considered as key communication technology. The studies conducted in [ 35 ] and
[ 36 ] reported promising results for implementation of BANs based on 60-GHz ra-
dios, for off-body and on-body scenarios respectively. In [ 35 ], it is shown that in spite
of the small distance between the antenna and the body, the impedance matching and
antenna gain are almost not affected by the presence of the body.
Scientists from Philips Research are developing intelligent pill named IntelliCap
for electronically controlled drug delivery via the intestinal tract where the main
challenge is navigating a drug-loaded pill capsule to the right site of the disease [ 37 ].
Low-power 60-GHz radios due to small antenna size and possibility for flexible
on-chip integration of the antenna arrays are the most serious candidate for those
emerging technologies.
Application of 60-GHz wireless technologies is also interesting in hospital envi-
ronments for realization of medical device networks. Advances in medical devices,
such as MRI, tend to provide scans with excellent quality based on several hun-
dred slices in forming the MRI profile. Special designed standard DICOM (digital
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