Design of a Real-time Pressure Ulcer and Stress Detection System for the Bedridden Patient

Abstract

Pressure ulcer and stress has been a challenging issue for human health. The research shows that mortality is a major issue for pressure ulcer patients. A real-time pressure ulcer and stress detection system is one that can be guided to detect the occurrence of pressure ulcers in bedridden patients and monitor the stress levels also in such patients so that they do not develop further health complications. The Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Sensor has been in use to measure the impedance of human tissues between the frequency range of 10 Hz to 1 MHz. Compared to other neuro-methods like Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) or Electroencephalogram (EEG) where calibration and longer preparations are quite common, patients are a lot more comfortable with GSR. In this paper, design and analysis of a real-time stress detection and pressure ulcer monitoring system have been presented. The appropriate values from the sensors are received by an android program that has been written. After data processing, a real-time stress analysis plot is presented. The identification of stress level has been done using Beats per minute (BPM) pulse sensor data and GSR data. A straightforward method has been created that uses a GSR sensor to measure skin resistance in pressure ulcer-prone areas of the human body and predicts the likelihood that a pressure ulcer will develop based on the GSR sensor data by comparing it to a threshold resistance value for those areas. Precautions can be done right away to prevent further health issues for the patient in cases of heightened risk from pressure sores or overstress.