Wireless Sensor Networks for Monitoring Physiological Signals of Multiple Patients

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a novel wireless sensor network structure to monitor patients with chronic diseases in their own homes through a remote monitoring system of physiological signals. Currently, most of the monitoring systems send patients' data to a hospital with the aid of personal computers (PC) located in the patients' home. Here, we present a new design which eliminates the need for a PC. The proposed remote monitoring system is a wireless sensor network with the nodes of the network installed in the patients' homes. These nodes are then connected to a central node located at a hospital through an Internet connection. The nodes of the proposed wireless sensor network are created by using a combination of ECG sensors, MSP430 microcontrollers, a CC2500 low-power wireless radio, and a network protocol called the SimpliciTI protocol. ECG signals are first sampled by a small portable device which each patient carries. The captured signals are then wirelessly transmitted to an access point located within the patients' home. This connectivity is based on wireless data transmission at 2.4-GHz frequency. The access point is also a small box attached to the Internet through a home asynchronous digital subscriber line router. Afterwards, the data are sent to the hospital via the Internet in real time for analysis and/or storage. The benefits of this remote monitoring are wide ranging: the patients can continue their normal lives, they do not need a PC all of the time, their risk of infection is reduced, costs significantly decrease for the hospital, and clinicians can check data in a short time.