Design and Implementation of in-Home Real-Time Wireless Fever Monitoring in Pediatrics during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Fever is one of the most common concern to be taken care by parents which sometimes force them to bring their children to the hospital emergency for continuous following up especially at night when sleeping. Fever is defined when the rectal temperature reaches over 38.0°C (100.4°F). Temperatures measured from other sites of body are usually less. There is no defined threshold for fever due to variation of body temperatures between different individuals as much as 1°F. Fever itself is not life threatening unless the rectal temperature is persistent over than 41.6°C (107°F). Fever may be due to a serious illness such as COVID-19 and usually is caused by common infections, which are not serious. However, a fever can be caused by other reasons other than infections. Since continuous temperature monitoring is inapplicable at the rectal site, the paper aims at developing a real-time system using wireless sensor network for wireless continuous fever monitoring on the head skin or wrist, which are the most applicable area with suitable compensation for the read temperature correction. The system can record the temperature on the patient’s side who is required to be isolated and transmit the fever status and critical situations to an alarming system on the side of taking-care people. This system will help in in-home care for pediatrics suffering from fever and especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic.