Wireless Sensor Network for Patient Health Monitoring System

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 06 | June -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 5.181 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1186
Wireless Sensor Network For Patient Health Monitoring System
Mrs. M. M. Raste1, Mr. S. K. Parchandekar2, Mr. G. S. Wagh3
1Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering,
Annasaheb Dange College of Engineering Ashta, Maharashtra, India.
2Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics Engineering,
Walchand College of Engineering Sangli, Maharashtra, India.
3Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering,
Annasaheb Dange College of Engineering Ashta,
Maharashtra, India.
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Abstract - Patient health monitoring system consist of
wireless sensor network (WSN). WSN is crucial technology.
Patient’s pulse rate, body temperature and heart beat is
monitored automatically by using kit which is associated with
patient. Wireless sensor network consist of nodes which
collects information which is sent to the central node.
Generally central node is PC on which bio signals are
monitored. Captured signal is transmitted to central node by
using RF module. As automatic monitoring is done, no staff is
required to care of patient.
Key Words: sensor, RF module, WSN, central node, bio
signal, automatic
1. INTRODUCTION
The reason for a patient staying in the hospital is not that he
or she actually needs active medical care.Often,theprincipal
reason for a lengthy stay in the hospital is simply continual
observation. Therefore, efforts have been made to avoid
acute admissions and long lengths of stay in the hospital. In
recent years, emergency admissions and long lengthsof stay
have become extremely costly. So the focus of health policy
has shifted away from the provision of reactive, acute care
toward preventive care outside the hospital. As models of
care are redesigned,healtheconomiesareseekingtoprovide
more care outside large acute centers. The drivers for this
shift are two-fold; first, there is a quality-of-care issue and
second, there is a resource allocation issue. Being cared for
in a patient’s own home is a key aim of current U.K.
government health policyandthatisdrivenbyanimperative
to provide better quality care to people without the need to
disrupt their lives.
Currently, some wireless monitoring systems have been
designed which commonly use a PC, a personal digital
assistant (PDA), or a mobile phone at the patient’s side. In
these systems, the vital signals are transmitted to the
hospital via internet or mobile networks. The main
drawbacks of these systems are the costs of a PC or PDA,
accessibility, and possible delaythatoccursinsendingdataif
the PC is off and the difficulty of using PCs for elderly people.
Meanwhile, some of the existing systemstransmitsignalsvia
an analog radio link to the base station which leaves the
signal vulnerable to degradation/hacking during analog
radio transmission.
In a wireless sensor network group of sensors monitor and
transmit medical signals. Sensors are tailored to a specific
condition. In this case, weobservea patientwhohassuffered
a heart attack and is considered at risk for having another
attack. This patient would be fitted with electrocardiogram
(ECG) sensors that monitor the heart activity,heartrate,and
so on. Further, patients are considered as nodes of the
network, and the hospital is considered as the central node
or sink. These nodes are then connected to a central node
which is installed in the hospital. Clinicians are then able to
monitor their patients’ conditions, detect anyabnormalities,
and take appropriate action (e.g., contact the patient to give
some advice or send an ambulance to their home). This
system has particular benefits for patients who want to live
their normal lives and for providers who are keen to closely
monitor patients but have limited resources or space. Inthis
system, there is no need for a PC to transmitdata via internet
connection.
Author in [6] elaborated Wireless Mesh Network. Wireless
Mesh Networks (WMN) are multihop networks of wireless
router platforms. The wireless routers are typically
stationary, but the clients can be mobile. A mesh network
can provide multihop communication paths between
wireless clients - serving as a community network or a
broadband access network for the Internet. WMN are
considered cost-effective alternatives to wireless LANs, as
there is no necessity to deploy any wired infrastructure to
support a mesh network. A number of routing protocols like
Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Adhoc on Demand distance
Vector routing (AODV) have been implemented for Adhoc
and Wireless LAN Networks.
Wireless Sensor based Mesh Network (WSMN) is an
integration of these two technologies - Wireless Sensor
Network and Wireless MeshNetwork.Thesensorsbeinglow
powered and low memory devices can transmit the
information to the nearest mesh nodes and these mesh

nodes can use multihop routing to transmit the information
to the backbone networks like the PDA or the terminals.
2. System model
In [7], system model is explained which is shown in Fig. 1. It
has two main sections in the system. The first section is the
patient home where the ECG signals are detected, amplified,
digitized, and prepared in some short packets—which we
call wireless packets—to be transmitted to an access point
via a wireless channel. The access point then assigns a
number for each packet and merges all of them togetherand
sends them via Internet to the hospital, which is the next
part of the system. In the hospital section, signals are
received and prepared for interpretation by clinicians. The
patient home is connected to the hospital through the
Internet.
Fig -1: System model
A wireless sensor network is networked and scalable,
consumes very little power is smart and software
programmable, capable of fast data acquisition, reliable and
accurate over the long term, costs little to purchase and
install, and requires no real maintenance. Each node in a
sensor network is typically equipped with a radio
transceiverorotherwireless communicationsdevice,a small
microcontroller, and an energy source, usually a battery. A
sensor network, normally constitutes a wireless Adhoc
network, and supports a multi-hop routing algorithm. The
base stations are one or more distinguished components of
the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with much more
computational, energy and communication resources. They
act as a gateway between sensor nodes and the end user.
Fig -2: Architecture of wireless sensor network
In the existing system, as shown In Fig. 3, the patient'sstatus
is looked up and taken care by some person who has to sit
near the patient itself. It is difficult to keep each person for
each patient. Hence there is a need of automatic monitoring
technique for patients.
Fig -3: Block diagram of existing system

The module in Fig. 1 consists of ECG sensors, wireless
patient portable unit (WPPU) and wireless access point unit
(WAPU).
2.1 Wireless Patient Portable Unit (WPPU)
The WPPU block diagram shown in Fig. 4. It consist
of two -parts – 1) ECG amplifier and noise cancellation
(ECGA and NC) circuits and 2) an RF network-end device
board includes a microcontroller and a low-power wireless
radio transceiver.
Fig -4: wireless patient portable unit
2.2 Wireless Access Point Unit (WAPU)
The WAPU block diagram shown in Fig. 5 consist of
two - parts – 1) the RF network-access point (RFNAP) board
and 2) Internet connection board (ICB).
Fig -5: wireless access point unit
2.3 ECG monitoring
The ECG monitoring software visualizes and
analyzes the ECG signals. Fig. 6 shows a snapshot of the ECG
monitoring application software. Some of the functionalities
of this application are as follows:
1) patient database: ability to add, delete,andmodifypatient
information;
2) online plotting: online ECG signals are visualizedformore
than one patient at any time;
3) offline plotting: plotting of saved ECG signals and the
ability to move signals forward and backward;
4)latest recorded ECG signal presentationformultipleusers:
this feature presents the latest recorded ECG information
(i.e., patient name, date, time) for the entire active patients
in a single form; the program flags up an alarm signal if
there is a delay in receiving data from any of the nodes
(patients); this ability greatly helps clinicians or nurses see
a problem immediately and take appropriate action for that
patient (node).
Fig -6: ECG monitoring application view
A mesh network has been deployed using Zigbeetechnology
to send the health status of the patient to a mesh node from
where the information is sent to a mobile phone using GSM
connection. To achieve this purpose Keil C is used for
processing the information in the sensor network and also
for sending the information to a terminal using mesh
network.
Fig -7: Real time implementation of patient health
monitoring system
But with the increasing number of wards and patientsinside
each hospital building, the mesh node would get overloaded
with information from the body sensors from the patients
and also the traffic from the doctor's handheld device.
Taking this aspect into consideration decentralized
hierarchical intelligent agent based architecture has been
proposed which is discussed in [6].
This architecture employs two types of intelligent agents
that are static and mobileagents.Thestaticintelligentagents
in this context stay within the ward of the hospital zone and
the mobile intelligentagents moveoutofward/hospital zone

to convey the appropriate message to doctors. The
mechanism is well described in the Fig.8. The static agent is
responsible for the following tasks: acquisition of data from
the required body sensor node, filtering of inaccurate and
unwanted data, aggregation and processing of useful data,
and transmission of the desired results. The mobile agent
would deliver the health data so received from Sensors to
the mobile phone. Based on the received information, the
doctor would attend to the patient immediately.
Fig -8: Block diagram of modified system
In [4], The system for home based monitoring of
PD(Parkinson's Disease) patients' using RSSI(Received
Signal Strength Indicator) values from the sensor motes
placed strategically in the patient's room so as to monitor
the patient's routine activities is explained which is shown
in Fig 9. Sensor motes placed at different locations will
communicate with the receiver by continuously sending
beacon signals. The receiver or theBaseStation(BS)canbea
data logger unit or patient's personal computerconnectedto
a receiving sensor mote. BS is capable of storing and
analyzing the sensed data and if required, forward it to an
emergency medical system. The value of the RSSI at the BS
will vary instantaneously when a personobstructsthesignal
between sender and receiver mote. This change in signal
strength can then be used to determine the location of
person in a room. Since the sensor motes are extremely
small and placed at different locations in patient's room,the
system will be completely unobtrusive for the patient
monitoring.
An electronic triage that can monitor patients' pulse status
remotely through ZigBee-based wireless sensor network is
shown in Fig 10. The system consists of a number of SNs, a
CN collecting the pulse rate from SNs through ZigBee
wireless interface, and a web interface for displaying the
graph of patients ' pulse rate. Electronic triage, which is
basically an SN, consists of pulsesensor, microcontroller and
ZigBee wireless interface . The electronic triage is placed in
patients' wrist and the pulse sensor bind the patients' finger
to detect the patients' pulse. The micro controller reads the
patients ' pulse from pulse sensor, then classifies into 3
(three) categories of severity levels, i.e., major, minor, and
normal status. The patients' pulse status is displayed in unit
of beat per minute (BPM) on 1 6x2 LCD. Three LED colors
indicate the severity level of patient's status (major: red,
minor: yellow and normal: green). If pulse status is between
60- 1 00 BPM, then green LED indicator will turn ON
indicating that patient is in good health condition and
classified as in the normal status. If the pulse status is
between 44 and 60 BPM or between 1 00 and 1 1 6 BPM,
then yellow LED indicator will turn ON to indicate that the
patient is in close to critical healthconditionandclassified as
in the minor status. Otherwise, red LED indicators will turn
ON to indicate that the patient in a critical health condition
and classified as in the major status. The pseudo-code I
shows the algorithm to classify the patients' severity level
embedded in microcontroller.
Fig -9: Block diagram of modified system
After classifying the patients' pulse status, the electronic
triage will send the pulse status to CN through the ZigBee
wireless interface. System consist of XBee Series 2 wireless
interface (ZigBee-based protocol) operating in 2.4 GHz
frequency band. The XBee series 2 supports point-to-point,
point-to multipoint, and mesh communication.Itisspecified
to handle a data transmission rate up to 250 Kbps using 2 m
W transmit power that can achieve a distance range up to
120 meters. The CN sends the information of patients 'pulse
status to web server. The information is displayed in web
interface for allowing medical team to monitor and assess
the patients ' condition remotely from anywhere using
internet browser. It is possible to restrict the access to the
web interface by allowing only the medical team toviewthis
web page.

Fig -10: Communication between CN and SN
3. Technologies used
3.1 ZigBee technology
ZigBee is an established set of specifications for a
suite of high level communication protocols based on the
IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard for wireless personal area
networking (WP AN) digital radio connections between
computers and related devices. This kind of network
eliminates use of physical data buses like USB and Ethernet
cables. The devices could include telephones, hand-held
digital assistants, sensors and controls located within a few
meters of each other.
ZigBee is one of the global standards of
communication protocol formulated by the relevant task
force under the IEEE 802.15 working group. The fourth in
the series, WP AN Low Rate/ZigBee is the newest and
provides specifications for devices that have low data rates,
consume very low power and are thus characterized by long
battery life. Other standards likeBluetoothandIrDAaddress
high data rate applications such as voice, video and LAN
communications.
3.1.1 ZigBee technology advantages
The advantagesofZigBeetechnologyareasfollows:
1. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is
intended to be simpler and less expensive than other
WPANs, such as Bluetooth.
2. The low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed
in wireless control and monitoring applications.
3. The low power-usage allows longer life with smaller
batteries.
4. The mesh networking provides high reliability and larger
range.
3.2 GSM technology
GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is
the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world.
Its promoter the GSM Association, estimates that 80% ofthe
global mobile market uses the standard. GSM is usedbyover
3 billion people across more than 212 countries and
territories. GSM differs from its predecessors in that both
signalling and speech channels are digital, and thus is
considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.
This has also meant that data communication was easy to
build into the system. GSM EDGE is a 3G version of the
protocol.
The ubiquity of the GSM standard has been an advantage to
both consumers (who benefit from the ability to roam and
switch carriers without switching phones) and also to
network operators (who can choose equipment from any of
the many vendors implementingGSM).GSMalsopioneereda
low cost (to the network carrier) alternative to voice calls,
the short message service (SMS, also called "text
messaging"), which is now supported on other mobile
standards as well.
3.2.1 GSM technology advantages
The advantages of GSM technology are as
follows:
1. Improved spectrum efficiency.
2. International roaming.
3. Low-cost mobile sets and base stations (BSs)
4. High-quality speech
5. Compatibility with Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) and other telephone company services.
6. Support for new services.
4. Conclusion
Many hospitals and physicians have requirements for an
integrated and reliable wireless monitoring system to
observe real-timephysiological signalsfrompatientsoutside
the hospital with high and reliable accuracy. Currently
available systems for monitoring physiological signalssuffer
from technical limitations, resultingintheunder exploitation
of potentially life-saving data. In this paper, a novel wireless
sensor network structure to monitor patients with chronic
diseases in their own home through a remote monitoring
system of physiological signals was presented.
Models used gives complete solution for the problem of
appointing a separate person to monitor a patient all the
time. The ZigBee technology helps in extending the
schematic for the entire hospital, comprising many wards.
The smart phone is used to intimatetheconcerneddoctorso
that the doctor can be present in any part of the world but
still could monitor the patient's health status throughout a
day. It also lowers thecostinvolvedwithmonitoring patients
and increases the efficient exploitation of physiological data.
REFERENCES
[1] Rinki Sharma, Shreyas K. Gupta, Suhas K. K. and G.
Srikanth Kashyap, “Performance analysis of Zigbee
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[4] Anagha Jamathe, Suryadip Chakraborty, Shotal K. Ghosh
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BIOGRAPHIES
Assistant Professor,
Department of ETC,
ADCET, Ashta,
Maharashtra.
Assistant Professor,
Department of Electronics,
WCE, Sangli,
Maharashtra.
M.E.(Pursuing),
Department of ETC,
ADCET, Ashta,
Maharashtra.

Wireless Sensor Network for Patient Health Monitoring System

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