Bioelectronics and Medical Devices

Applications and Technology

Garima Srivastava, Manju Khari, Garima Srivastava, Manju Khari

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000088076
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Biomedical Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This new volume provides an abundance of information on new biomedical applications being used today. The book covers a wide range of concepts and technologies, discussing such modern technological methods as the Internet of Things, e-pills, biomedical sensors, support vector machines, wireless devices, image and signal processing in e-health, and machine learning. It also includes a discussion on software implementation for the devices used in biomedical applications. The different types of antennas, including antennas using RF energy harvesting for biomedical applications, are covered as well.

CHAPTER 1Internet of Things for Health Care and Health Monitoring

DEEPTI MISHRA

Associate Professor, G. L. Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, Greater Noida, India, E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Internet of things (IoT)-empowered devices allow patients and users to handle health care issues and are more beneficial for health monitoring by offering better fitness. IoT provides a lot of valuable prospects in the domain of medicine. As health care-related services are expensive, such IoT devices related to health care are very much utilized by the people and these are grasping their roots very rapidly. The medical devices can gather worthy information regarding users’ symptoms for the disease and when associated with the internet they provide real-time monitoring of symptoms. Health care devices with the internet can support remote care as patients can more regulate their treatments when they are aware of the complications regularly in an easy manner. There are many ways of applying IoT in medical devices such as wearables fitness bands for monitoring heart rates, walk steps, blood pressure so that patients can be given personalized care, etc. A continuous glucose monitor is a medical device enabled with IoT and is used to uninterruptedly monitor the glucose level of diabetic patients. The chapter presents the concept, functioning, and applications of IoT on various biomedical devices for health care and health monitoring for both patients and physicians.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The internet of things (IoT) is a broad system of devices that can communicate, share, and transfer the data digitally in real-time with complete security via the internet. It means devices are capable enough for retrieval and transmission of information using a communication channel. Let us assume an example, we can read books, newspapers, and search jobs in any domain when we connect to the internet. All the information is not stored at the same location, but the mobile searches the keywords and displays in a single search. IoT applies heterogeneous technologies such as data mining, machine learning (ML), real-time analysis, various software platforms, operating systems, networking, and electronics for the efficient functioning of the system. The benefit of IoT is that the situation can be sensed and perceived as per the information which is gathered by devices on a real-time basis [1]. The term can be stated as the internet of medical things (IoMT), which includes sensors connected with mobile devices to gather data and further combined with electronic health care records.

As per data analytics companies, the market size of the IoT has reached $130B in 2018 and by 2023 it will touch $318B. According to IDC worldwide technology, spending on the IoT is likely to reach $1.2T in 2022. The global IoT market will grow from $157B in 2016 to $457B by 2020.

IoT is going high in and around all the fields whether it is engineering, business, or medical [2]. There are massive application areas and the one emerging area is health care and health monitoring as shown in Figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 Applications and services of IoT in health care.

When IoT is applied for health care purposes, it combines the utility of the internet with apps and devices to deliver accurate real-time statistics of patients to the health providers to diagnose the information [3]. IoT in health management offers additional care for the patients outside the hospitals by doing monitoring of remote patients, sensing emergencies, and focusing on individual care [4].

There are various applications of IoT in health care such as telemedicine, BP monitors, clothes with a sensing device, pulse oximeters, glucose monitor, headset measuring brain waves, wearable devices to monitor heartbeats, devices to monitor sleep disorder, count walk steps, infant monitoring, and many more [5, 6].

1.1.1 ADVANTAGES OF IOT IN HEALTH CARE

IoT is ruling health care in many positive prospects. It provides cheap and personal care to the patients [7, 8]:

1. Cost-Effective: As the IoT is providing real-time monitoring of patients, it will reduce the cost of lab checkups, doctor visits, and readmissions.
2. Improved Disease Management: Having the IoT supported health care devices, patients get a fast diagnosis of diseases with its accurate treatment and an emergency can be easily sensed.
3. Individual Care: Patients are more relaxed as they have a feel of individual attention since health care devices with IoT provide devoted care, better diagnosis of disease, and early processes treatment.
4. Enhanced Outcomes of Treatment: It permits the patients to stay home. The IoT supported devices of health care are empowered by sensors to gather data and to analyze it for further treatment. The collected data is transferred to doctors or hospitals so that patients can get enhanced treatments.
5. Observing Remote Patients: This is an actual benefit of tele-health, which can be achieved simply by smartphone. It will create an impression of home care to the patients who do not have good facilities of hospitals and doctors in their locality. Patients can be monitored and inspected at their home and can be treated efficiently [9]. The elder people who are not able to approach hospitals are given personalized care at home.
6. Maintenance of Real-Time Health care Record: A centralized health care is delivered by IoT health care services, which in turn, also maintain the health care record in a well-organized manner. The data retained by monitoring devices can be sent to doctors, labs, or technicians for further diagnosis of diseases in the future as well.
7. Improved Management of Health care Wastage: Timely collection, prompt, and accurate display of patient information as well as its transference to the doctor leads to precise diagnosis and thereby leading to negligible chances of any health care wastage. Chances of unnecessary investigation or unduly delay are thereby reduced.
8. Decline in Errors: Clerical errors, printing mistakes, communication gaps, misinterpretation of values, or data are almost unknown due to the usage of smartphones and IoT thereby leading to a quantum reduction in error chances.

The technology for health care involving IoT is still developing. It is facing some challenges like security, data integration, privacy, etc. The rest of the chapter focuses on recent trends, infrastructure, application areas, and security issues related to IoT in health care.

1.2 RECENT TRENDS IN HEALTH CARE

Applying IoT in health care can be used to observe remote patients. Users can watch their fitness through apps, wearable devices, or sensing devices.

Apple watch series are newly launched to monitor fitness, heart rate, count calories, etc. Recently, people in Sweden installed a chip in their fingertips. The chip can share the data regarding the functioning of the body so that any flaws can be detected in an early stage. A trial has been done by using Bluetooth devices combined with a system tracking app that was experimented for cancer patients of neck and head by a group named CYCORE [10]. The device retrieves data of weight, blood pressure, symptoms, and responses to doctors and nurses regularly. A perceptible difference is noticed between the group of patients with a regular visit and the CYCORE group. The CYCORE received less severe symptoms and better treatment in comparison to other groups. Most recent smartphones are being launched with health sensors in the accessories like wrist gear.

A KHARE (Kinect HoloLens Assisted Rehabilitation Experience) platform is created by Microsoft Enterprise Services with INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work) for mirror neuron therapy. Physicians are allowed to watch physical therapy sessions through the platform which allows real-time transmission of data [11].

Another example is Weka Smart Fridge which stands for storing information about vaccines. Remote monitoring can be done to confirm the vaccines are managed at the right temperature and proper storage place.

The analysis illustrates that when technology is combined with health care it improves patients’ condition in a better way as they receives direct contact with doctors and facilities consistently to maintain good health. Currently, numerous examples exist show that the implementation of the IoT in the health care industry provides more vigilance towards health.

1.3 IOT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR HEALTH CARE AND HEALTH MONITORING

Abundant applications are brought by IoT in health care such as observing patients in remote areas and integrating with smart sensors and devices. Due to which patients are healthy and happy as they are getting care regularly without visiting hospitals [12, 13].

IoT infrastructure enables machine-to-machine interactions and data transfer on a real-time basis with medical devices [14]. Infrastructure includes various factors such as privacy of data, communication protocols, physical devices, cloud computing, security, and cryptography techniques used by experts for assessments and accurate automatic treatments. Communication also includes the concept of cloud computing [15].

IoT infrastructure consists of health care devices that sensed data further which is connected to a network as described in Figure 1.2. Health care devices may be hardware or software components. Sensors are capable enough to retrieve accurate data for further analysis. Connectivity may be done via wired or wireless connection [16]. Analysis of data can be based on a description of data or maybe by some calculations or maybe by some predictions. The data is further analyzed by their experts on their application platform such as their monitor device. Topology, architecture, and platform are the backbones of infrastructure: The topology includes physical configurations, activities, and communications. Architecture stands for the organization of software and hardware in the system including connection with other physical devices. Framework, library, and environment are part of the platform [17].

FIGURE 1.2 Conceptual architecture of IoT in health care.

The associated technologies are big data, ML, mobile computing, cloud computing, IoT, cryptography, and cybersecurity. The data accumulated is so enormous that we need to include the technology of big data to manage it. All the apps functions and data transfer takes place through mobile without being connected by physical connection. Cloud computing plays a vital role to provide internet-based services very efficiently. All the devices whether wearable or non-wearable requires the IoT for connectivity and functioning.

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