A 2-in-1 Vital Sign Monitor with Smart Fever Type Classification for Home-Care Services

Abstract

Monitoring of vital sign parameters is crucial in identifying clinical deterioration. Therefore, these parameters must be measured regularly to monitor acute and chronic diseases. However, most of the existing vital sign monitors are designed mainly for hospital clinical settings. These devices are generally bulky, with complex user interfaces and no integration of mobile applications, as well as auto fever-type classification algorithms for potential disease screening. As a result, this paper presents a 2-in-1 home-based vital sign monitor based on an Arduino Nano microcontroller, a DS18B20 temperature sensor to measure body temperature from the fingertip, and an MPX5050DP pressure sensor to acquire blood pressure based on the oscillometric method. An Android mobile application is also developed and integrated with the device through wireless Bluetooth to display vital sign measurement results, analyze fever patterns and symptoms for early detection of potential diseases, and send an alert notification message if abnormalities are detected. Google Firebase Authentication is also deployed for user authentication. The results show that the system provides an accurate vital sign measurement of 98.75% and 99.94% for blood pressure and body temperature, respectively. The mobile application was also successfully deployed with a fever classification algorithm as a clinical decision support system.Clinical Relevance— The vital signs and fever classification result can be used as part of a clinical decision support system by clinicians for infectious disease screening.