Since December 2019, global health care is facing many challenges, particularly in India. Since February 2020, when the first COVID 19 affected casualty was recorded at Kalaburgi, Karnataka, in a country like India with more than 1.39 billion population, having densely located households and places like Dharavi, controlling affected ones is a humanly impossible task. The protocols for patients are difficult to be followed under such circumstances. The front-line workers like the doctors and nurses have been exposed to this virus and losing them is a certainty. In this ongoing war against Corona, the front-line workers stood like warriors. Under these volatile circumstances, it is everyone’s responsibility to join hands and contribute in one way or the other. The police department and municipal corporation workers are already supporting in their way. What about the so-called technocrats? To safeguard our frontline warriors let us use our technology without failing the COVID protocols. One such effort is controlling and monitoring the affected ones remotely.
IOT can be of enormous help in monitoring the COVID affected patients round the clock in-home isolation or in quarantine centers to check the seriousness of their conditions, using their vital parameters like body temperature, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, blood oxygen levels (SpO2) and pulse rate. The patient’s location also can be monitored using Global Positioning System (GPS). Effective implementation of the suitable sensors for these parameters can help in digital transfer of the sensitive data without human touch and can be also used for a larger analysis of big data leading to better solutions by addressing the problem at higher levels with mixed patterns. At the initial level, it contains the multifaceted sensors where the patient’s data is gathered and processed in the programmed tool so that the doctor can track the parameters along with their locations. The device should generate alerts in case any of the parameters are not within the specified limits and thus offers remote surveillance. Creative novel application software (App) can be used remotely to monitor the patient’s vital parameters and to display all this with the patient’s location in a doctor’s smartphone or a laptop/desktop is the need of the hour. The display software should have features like patient details, location on a map, and the important health parameters with recorded time and different health zones. In case of any emergency different alerts are to be generated to caution the front-line workers.
IoT based Health Monitoring System
Once we achieve this task, the doctors can download the data on their mobile phone, laptop/desktop through application software (App). In case of abnormalities in the parameters, the doctor can interact with the patient over the phone and provide medical advice. This can be used even in the future to monitor the old patients whose family is away from home due to their busy professional life. The same device can be installed in the hospitals too, to monitor the patients from the doctor’s mobile phone/laptop/desktop. This will help our front-line warriors to avoid exposure to the infected patients and also reduce the usage of PPE kits which they had to wear for a long duration.
Finally, the wireless wearable which should be small, portable, and easy to use will enable the patients to better access the health care, improve the quality of healthcare and also provide healthcare workers with better patient care through constant monitoring of patients. This will decreases the emergency room visits and the admission to the hospitals, in turn, providing ae better capacity to treat more patients.
Dr. Sridhar T
Professor,
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
ACED, Alliance University