| dc.description.abstract | In this project we have investigated and assessed wireless patient monitoring solutions.
Trough qualitative interviews we have investigated the infrastructure and
practice of wireless ECG monitoring systems at two Norwegian hospitals. Combining
what we learned from the existing solutions with different WBAN implementations
found in literature, we propose a design for a wireless monitoring system
based on available technology and open standards. We validated this design
by building prototype that test certain critical aspects of wireless ECG monitoring.
The prototype was based on a Bluetooth Smart enabled node, an Android gateway
and a modern web-server for real time streaming.
In conclusion we see that the current version of Bluetooth Smart is able to
support continuous streaming of clinical grade raw ECG at a 1000 Hz sampling
rate with 32 bit samples. A BLE enabled ECG device can support this throughput
and still have more than 4 times the battery lifetime compared to the existing
solutions we investigated. We have also assessed the end-to-end delay in our
proposed design for a monitoring solution, and showed that for one of our use
cases, this delay averages around 60ms.
We have evaluated the technology backing a WBAN enabled hospital as ready
for clinical usage, but don t believe the current organization of clinical technology
will change before outside factors make the manufacturers rethink their current
business models. | |
