Real-time Health Monitoring using Wireless Body Area Network

Abstract

Wireless body area network (WBAN) being a sub-domain of wireless sensor network (WSN) is a new emerging technology for healthcare applications. A WBAN consists of low-power tiny wireless nodes placed on or around the human body that continuously observe vital health signs of a patient. These sensors are capable of sending information of physiological parameters taken from human body to other devices for diagnosis procedures and prescription. WBAN provides ubiquitous healthcare services and enables greater mobility without restricting human normal activities, as the medical personnel can observe the patient health conditions based on the data received through the wireless network. This research work provides a WBAN based healthcare monitoring system that can provide the electrocardiogram (ECG), heartbeat, and human body temperature information. The wireless transmission of the received data from human body is performed by using Zigbee IEEE802.15.4 communication standard. The physiological data will be communicated to remote medical server where data is stored and analyzed. In case any disease is diagnosed, medical personnel can provide immediate assistance to the patients.