Body-Worn, Ambient, and Consumer Sensing for Health Applications

Abstract

There has been increasing momentum, particularly in the last decade, for new healthcare sensing and monitoring devices, driven in part by advances in sensor and sensor system technologies, which are delivering greater capabilities at economically viable costs. Moreover, global demographics are driving a significant rethink in the way we deliver healthcare. The cost of healthcare will continue to rise unabated, to economically unaffordable levels, unless we change our current approach. Technology affords greater flexibility in clinical protocols and enables the new consumer healthcare market. Sensing and sensor technologies play a key role at the center of healthcare innovation, and will continue to enable that innovation into the future as they integrate with a range of other information and communications technologies (ICT) to deliver exciting new capabilities.As new sensing technologies, such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), biochemical, and immunological sensors continue to emerge, their proliferation into healthcare will continue to accelerate. Sensing will enable regular or continuous monitoring of health status, which will in turn enable the delivery of new proactive models of care. In the longer term, patient outcomes should improve, because issues will be identified earlier, when interventions can be more effective and less costly. Continuous monitoring solutions have already emerged in the telehealth space for monitoring chronic conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF), and diabetes. Such monitoring provides continuous observation of disease state, which is valuable for anticipating and avoiding the physical and financial cost of acute episodes. Treating patients after an acute episode-which is the current reactive model of care-can result in catastrophic and irreversible changes in a person's health and well-being and lead to accelerated decline. Over time, sensing will also be applied to screening the general population as part of national healthcare programs to improve public health. Individuals, particularly the increasing number of "worried well" individuals (those who are healthy but are worried about becoming ill and seek reassurance by visiting their doctor, testing themselves, or taking medication when there is no medical reason to do so), are also likely to utilize sensing technology to proactively monitor and maintain their own health.As pervasive sensing becomes the norm in healthcare, it will significantly increase our knowledge about disease risk and the effectiveness of interventions. Existing technology-based solutions are currently helping us to better understand the aging process, including identifying early signs of cognitive decline, frailty, motor and neurological issues. Sensor technologies enable a fresh look at healthcare at the individual level by building a detailed understanding of changes in a person's health status. This data provides the early warning signs for issues that most affect health and well-being. Ch...

Internet of Things: Architectures, Protocols, and Applications

“…Subsequently, they can provide real time feedback to the doctor, relatives, or the patient. McGrath and Scanaill [34] have described in detail the different sensors that can be worn on the body for monitoring a person's health.…”

“…A very important consideration here is the context [34]. The data collected by the medical sensors must be combined with contextual information such as physical activity.…”

Automatic Recognition of Human Interaction via Hybrid Descriptors and Maximum Entropy Markov Model Using Depth Sensors

“…Seven actions were performed wearing BWS and the results were evaluated based on these actions. Motivated by a wide variety of applications using motion sensing in the healthcare department, a BWS based monitoring system was proposed by J. Michael et al [ 59 ]. In order to measure the physical activities of humans, an innovative wireless system is proposed by N. Golestani et al [ 60 ].…”

IoT-Based Skin Monitoring System

“…Different types of sensors can be used to assess and track human body medical parameters [5]. Through his research, McGrath and Scanaill [6] describe the various wearable sensors used for personal health movement through detail. Many wearable devices with sensors are now available on the market which measure various parameters, such as the heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration rate and blood glucose levels [7].Another new IoT system that has a lot of promise is skin tracking patches that can be put on the skin like a tattoo.…”