An Enhanced IoT-Based Array of Sensors for Monitoring Patients’ Health

Abstract

The advancement of information technology is demonstrated by the emergence of the Internet of Things, which impacts many areas, such as healthcare and health services. The Internet of Things has grown its branches in nearly all areas due to its enormous characteristics. Due to the current pandemic that has created a gap between doctors and their patients, an intelligent health monitoring system for exact and precise tracking of a patient’s health is crucial. Various health monitoring systems are being developed on the button of current growths in the Internet of Things. However, there exist some shortcomings in the likes of range of connectivity, cost, and portability. This study aims to develop an enhanced Internet of Things-based patients’ health monitoring system consisting of four vital sensors: temperature sensor, heartbeat sensor, pulse sensor, and UV sensor. These sensory units are attached to the Arduino Nano board, and the data gotten from these sensors are stored in a ThingSpeak cloud with the ESP8266–01 Wi-Fi communication module. The proposed solution is fully tested on 25 live patients, and the overall results with respect to the output of the sensors with given live temperature, heartbeat, pulse rate, and UV readings showed an automated response of sensors and significant improvements to the availability of patients’ vitals in real time with a minimum average response time of 7 s. In conclusion, our experimental results showed an advancement in existing studies regarding the number of measured parameters, deployment environment, and response time.KeywordsArduino nanoHealth monitoring systemHealth securityHeartbeat sensorInternet of Things (IoT)Pulse sensorThingSpeakUV sensor