An automated vital sign monitoring system for congestive heart failure patients

Abstract

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a cardiovascular disorder that affects approximately 4.6 million Americans and is a leading cause of death in the United States. Current research shows that strategies to promote early recognition and treatment of symptoms and enhance self-care management behaviors reduce unnecessary hospitalizations. However, mechanisms to monitor patients' health status and behaviors are limited by constraints imposed by the patient's geography, infirmity, or resources. Remote monitoring supports a more dynamic connection between healthcare providers and patients, improves health promotion and patient care through monitoring of health data, communicates health reminders, and makes provisions for patient feedback. This paper will describe two versions of Weight and Activity with Blood Pressure Monitoring System (WANDA [22]) that leverages sensor technology and wireless communication to monitor health status of patients with CHF. The WANDA system is built on a three-tier architecture consisting of sensors, a web server, and back-end database tiers. The system was developed in conjunction with the UCLA School of Nursing and the UCLA Wireless Health Institute to enable early detection of key clinical symptoms indicative of CHF-related decompensation in a real-time automated fashion and allows health professionals to offer surveillance, advice, and continuity of care and triggers early implementation of strategies to enhance adherence behaviors. The small study has enabled patients to reduce or maintain the number of readings which are out of the acceptable range. For diastolic, systolic, and heart rate values, the t-test results show that the WANDA study is effective for patients with CHF.

Mapping the health technology needs of congestive heart failure patients

“…Although research into the beneficial role of health technology for CHF patients is increasingly being reported in literature, most of this research focuses on technical aspects, such as classifying and predicting patients' condition severity [2,6], automated vital sign monitoring [8] or improving disease outcomes [5]. Research focusing on heart patients' needs is mostly done with people suffering from other types of heart disease, or patients with cardiovascular disease in general [e.g.…”

Missing data imputation for remote CHF patient monitoring systems

“…The wireless health monitoring system WANDA exploits sensors and wireless communication techniques to monitor and provide guidance and feedback to patients with CHF. WANDA was shown to be highly effective for patients with CHF [3]. However, the first pilot study of WANDA experienced a considerable amount of missing data.…”

“…Such remote technologies can also enable health professionals to offer surveillance, advice, and continuity of care to trigger early implementation of strategies that enhance adherence behaviors. WANDA [2][3] is a wireless health project that leverages sensor technologies and communication to monitor the health status of patients with CHF. WANDA monitors vital signs and other information deemed critical to CHF assessment, including weight, blood pressure, heart rate, activity, and daily somatic awareness scale questionnaires [4][5][6].…”

“…WANDA monitors vital signs and other information deemed critical to CHF assessment, including weight, blood pressure, heart rate, activity, and daily somatic awareness scale questionnaires [4][5][6]. The effectiveness of WANDA for CHF patients was shown in [3]. …”

2C Vision Game: Visual Acuity Self-Testing Using Mobile Devices

“…Research in body area networks has focused on various important physical health activities, including sleep monitoring [1], food consumption [14], muscular system behavior [2][15] [16], vital signs [13], and cardiovascular health [3] [17]. Additionally, monitoring exposure to detrimental environment factors, such as ultraviolet radiation, has been addressed with body area networks [4].…”