Real-time Healthcare Monitoring Research Articles

Monitoring and analysis of physical activity and health conditions based on smart wearable devices

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) brings sweeping changes in various industries. Healthcare industries have become a prime example where the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) is making significant progress, particularly in how we approach real-time patient care. Traditional systems for monitoring older people and people with special needs are frequently expensive, require a large workforce, and fall short of providing real-time data. This paper introduces the “3-Tier Health Care Architecture,” an integrated approach to mitigating these issues. This architecture capitalizes on IoHT technologies and is constructed around three principal tiers: Sensor, Fog, and Cloud. The Sensor Tier employs Health Metrics Acquisition Units (HMAUs) fitted with an nRF5340 Development Kit, capturing an extensive range of health-related metrics via wearable sensors. These metrics are then relayed to the Local Processing Units (LPUs) in Fog Tier, which operates on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W microprocessors for the initial data processing before forwarding to the cloud. The Cloud Tier uses a hybrid CNN-LSTM Machine Learning (ML) model to perform Real-Time Healthcare Monitoring (RTHM) status assessments and includes an Early Warning System for immediate alert issuance. The proposed architecture is resilient, scalable, and efficient, serving as a fortified and all-encompassing solution for RTHM. This enables quick medical interventions, thus elevating healthcare quality and potentially life-saving.

An energy-aware module placement strategy in fog-based healthcare monitoring systems

AbstractFog computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) have revolutionized healthcare monitoring systems, enabling real-time health data collection and transmission while overcoming cloud computing limitations. However, efficiently selecting fog nodes for application modules with varying deadline requirements and ensuring adherence to quality of service (QoS) criteria pose significant challenges due to resource constraints and device limitations. In this paper, we present a novel two-layered hierarchical design for fog devices, leveraging cluster aggregation to optimize the selection of fog nodes for healthcare applications. We introduce three efficient algorithms to minimize system latency and reduce energy consumption in fog computing environments. Our proposed model is rigorously evaluated using the iFogSim toolkit and compared with cloud-based and latency-aware model [Mahmud R, Ramamohanarao K, Buyya R in ACM Transactions on Internet Technology.19, 2018, 10.1145/3186592]. In four distinct network topologies, our model exhibits an average latency reduction of at least 87% and energy consumption reduction of at least 76% when compared to the Cloud-based model. Similarly, when compared to the Latency-aware model proposed in [Mahmud R, Ramamohanarao K, Buyya R in ACM Transactions on Internet Technology. 19, 2018, 10.1145/3186592], our model showcases a minimum reduction of 43% in average latency and 27% in energy consumption. Our contribution lies in addressing the complexity of selecting fog nodes for application modules with diverse deadline requirements, while ensuring QoS. This work advances the field of real-time healthcare monitoring systems, promising substantial improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.

Uniform and welded networks of silver nanowires surface-embedded on cellulose yarns with PEDOT:PSS passivation for sustainable E-textiles

Electronic textiles are critical for wearable electronics and real-time health care monitoring. The use of cellulose fibers with conductive components to construct optimized materials for enhanced performance remains an ongoing mission. We report the use of continuous dip-coating of hydrogel fibers to fabricate conductive cellulose yarns (CCYs). Uniform, interwelded and compact silver nanowire (AgNW) networks are embedded on the surfaces of the cellulose yarns, after which a PEDOT:PSS passivation layer is applied to ensure the reliability and practicality of the CCYs. This unique AgNW network provids high electrical conductivity of the CCYs, high strain sensitivities and good Joule heating. Wearable fabric devices embroidered with CCYs exhibit superior performance in strain sensing and electrothermal insulation. This CCY realizes the organic combination of manufacturing, practicability and functionality in sustainable E-textiles. The CCY has the potential to enable scalable manufacturing of low-cost wearable sensors integrated into everyday clothes.

Real-time healthcare monitoring system through haversine distance calculation-based global positioning system

Real-time healthcare monitoring system through haversine distance calculation-based global positioning system

Doping Engineering of Conductive Polymers and Their Application in Physical Sensors for Healthcare Monitoring.

Physical sensors have emerged as a promising technology for real-time healthcare monitoring, which tracks various physical signals from the human body. Accurate acquisition of these physical signals from biological tissue requires excellent electrical conductivity and long-term durability of the sensors under complex mechanical deformation. Conductive polymers, combining the advantages of conventional polymers and organic conductors, are considered ideal conductive materials for healthcare physical sensors due to their intrinsic conductive network, tunable mechanical properties, and easy processing. Doping engineering has been proposed as an effective approach to enhance the sensitivity, lower the detection limit, and widen the operational range of sensors based on conductive polymers. This approach enables the introduction of dopants into conductive polymers to adjust and control the microstructure and energy levels of conductive polymers, thereby optimizing their mechanical and conductivity properties. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of doping engineering methods to improve the physical properties of conductive polymers and highlights their applications in the field of healthcare physical sensors, including temperature sensors, strain sensors, stress sensors, and electrophysiological sensing. Additionally, the challenges and opportunities associated with conductive polymer-based physical sensors in healthcare monitoring are discussed.

Echo State Network-Enabled Intelligent Smart Sensor Design for Creating a Robotic Nervous System

Introduction: The echo states that networks in the Internet of Things (IoT) are currently being implemented in the widest sense. Echo state networks are fast and efficient recurrent neural networks. This consists of an input layer, a reservoir with many sparsely connected neurons, and an output layer. Issues: In the existing wireless sensor networks, strong mobility may disrupt an existing link between two communicating nodes. There is an inconvenience in data communication, and then it searches for a new node to build a better connection. Methods: To overcome these issues, the recently introduced echo state network (ESN) model opened the way to an extremely efficient approach for designing neural networks for temporal data. The study focuses on the ESN-enabled Intelligent Smart Sensor Design (IS2D) for creating the robotic nervous system with a smart healthcare Digital Nervous System (DNS) using the techniques of IoT, DNS, and Smart Sensor Design and Strain Sensor Fabrication (SSF). Results: Experimental results demonstrate the training set testing against the IS2D, the confusion matrix for ESN outcome, the real-time healthcare monitoring for the DNS, the IS2D sensor accuracy, and the DNS intensity calculation. Discussion: The performance analysis of the proposed model in realistic environments attests to the benefits of energy-centric metrics such as energy consumption, network lifetime, delay, and throughput. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities by summarizing the study and proposing possible future works. The training set testing against the IS2D is based on time count, and the voltage result is estimated. The first portion of the data set should be 11.46% at the initial level. Further, this will increase from 1% to 5%, from 6% to 10%, and from 16% to 28% at the consecutive data set. The confusion matrix for ESN outcome is based on accuracy 28.45% higher than the existing strategies. In this part, the initial accuracy is 8.45% while accessing the initial stage. This value should increase with consecutive data sets from 18.45% to 28.45%.

Fiber-based quantum-dot pulse oximetry for wearable health monitoring with high wavelength selectivity and photoplethysmogram sensitivity

Increasing demand for real-time healthcare monitoring is leading to advances in thin and flexible optoelectronic device-based wearable pulse oximetry. Most previous studies have used OLEDs for this purpose, but did not consider the side effects of broad full-width half-maximum (FWHM) characteristics and single substrates. In this study, we performed SpO2 measurement using a fiber-based quantum-dot pulse oximetry (FQPO) system capable of mass production with a transferable encapsulation technique, and a narrow FWHM of about 30 nm. Based on analyses we determined that uniform angular narrow FWHM-based light sources are important for accurate SpO2 measurements through multi-layer structures and human skin tissues. The FQPO was shown to have improved photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal sensitivity with no waveguide-mode noise signal, as is typically generated when using a single substrate (30–50%). We successfully demonstrate improved SpO2 measurement accuracy as well as all-in-one clothing-type pulse oximetry with FQPO.

Advanced materials for bioresorbable stent for real-time health-care monitoring

Purpose: Heart failure, which has a mortality rate higher than most cancers, is among the most important public health issues. Because of this, the fields of medicine and bio-medical engineering have provided a lot of attention to cardiovascular disease. In this review, we present the recent bioresorbable stent technology in aspect of advanced materials to overcome health issues.
 Methodology: This study is based on reviews of Bioresorbable stent (BRS) technology from various technical resources.
 Main Findings: Bioresorbable stent (BRS) shows new class of medical devices in interventional cardiology for the treatment of coronary artery disease. The concept of the BRS is to provide temporal support to the vessel during healing before being degraded and absorbed by the body, eliminating the additional surgical process.
 Implications: With advances in nanofabrication, novel kinds of bioresorbable sensing/wireless component could be fabricated and integrated on the stent without failure when it expanded in the vessel. These technologies will significantly influence future diagnosis technology for future generations.
 Novelty: The technology was introduced to overcome limitations of current developed drug-eluting stents, which are fabricated with metallic materials. With development of medical strategies, we could response earlier for medical issues to prevent recurrence of disease.

A high-applicability, high-durability wearable hybrid nanogenerator with magnetic suspension structure toward health monitoring applications

Wearable health monitoring is becoming increasingly significant due to the pursuit of high-quality life. However, wearable health monitoring devices powered by limited capacities batteries face frequent charging demand and unhandy device replacement. Effective energy scavenging from human locomotion is an alternative approach for powering wearable health monitoring devices. Herein, a novel wearable hybrid nanogenerator (WHG) combining soft-contact triboelectric nanogenerators (SC-TENGs) with three-phase suspension electromagnetic generators (TPS-EMGs) based on a distinctive magnetic suspension structure is designed to harvest human biomechanical energy. The features of frequency increase and automatic reset for the magnetic suspension structure are analyzed by finite element simulations. The SC-TENGs and TPS-EMGs can deliver the maximum instantaneous power of 0.54 mW and 1.81 mW, respectively. For efficiently employing the electric energy derived from the WHG, a power management integrated circuit was manufactured, which not only supplies a stable voltage to suit electronic devices, but also realizes multiple working modes to solve the power mismatch between the WHG and health monitoring applications with different power requirements. Furthermore, a self-powered bracelet with the function of heartbeat monitoring and a wearable blood glucose monitor linked to a smartphone are realized. This work indicates the huge potential of the WHG for powering real-time healthcare monitoring devices, which facilitates the development of self-powered wearable electronics.

Point-of-care biochemical assays using electrochemical technologies: approaches, applications, and opportunities.

Against the backdrop of hidden symptoms of diseases and limited medical resources of their investigation, in vitro diagnosis has become a popular mode of real-time healthcare monitoring. Electrochemical biosensors have considerable potential for use in wearable products since they can consistently monitor the physiological information of the patient. This review classifies and briefly compares commonly available electrochemical biosensors and the techniques of detection used. Following this, the authors focus on recent studies and applications of various types of sensors based on a variety of methods to detect common compounds and cancer biomarkers in humans. The primary gaps in research are discussed and strategies for improvement are proposed along the dimensions of hardware and software. The work here provides new guidelines for advanced research on and a wider scope of applications of electrochemical biosensors to in vitro diagnosis.Graphical abstract

Ultrastretchable Organogel/Silicone Fiber-Helical Sensors for Self-Powered Implantable Ligament Strain Monitoring.

Implantable sensors with the abilities of real-time healthcare monitoring and auxiliary training are important for exercise-induced or disease-induced muscle and ligament injuries. However, some of these implantable sensors have some shortcomings, such as requiring an external power supply or poor flexibility and stability. Herein, an organogel/silicone fiber-helical sensor based on a triboelectric nanogenerator (OFS-TENG) is developed for power-free and sutureable implantation ligament strain monitoring. The OFS-TENG with high stability and ultrastretchability is composed of an organogel fiber and a silicone fiber intertwined with a double helix structure. The organogel fiber possesses the merits of rapid preparation (15 s), good transparency (>95%), high stretchability (600%), and favorable stability (over 6 months). The OFS-TENG is successfully implanted on the patellar ligament of the rabbit knee for the real-time monitoring of knee ligament stretch and muscle stress, which is expected to provide a solution for real-time diagnosis of muscle and ligament injuries. The prepared self-powered OFS-TENG can monitor data on human muscles and ligaments in real-time.

Evolution of solution-based organic thin-film transistor for healthcare monitoring– from device to circuit integration: A review

Demand for organic electronics has growth tremendously for the past decade, owing to their high flexibility and low processing cost attributes. As part of the important elements in organic electronics, a solution processable organic thin film transistor (OTFT) has been center of discussion among researchers. The OTFT is recognized to bring electrical, mechanical, and industrial benefits to a broad range of new applications such as flexible displays, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as well as biosensors specifically for healthcare monitoring system. Despite of their great application demand and significant technology advancement, the OTFT devices demonstrate unstable electrical performances especially in their mobilities and threshold voltages. These drawbacks will hold the fully commercialization of the OTFT in the market. Thus, this paper comprehensively reviews the current status of the OTFT technologies, ranging from material, device, process, and integration, including improvement that have been done on mobilities and operating voltages. Besides that, this work discusses on the applicability of the OTFT in the biosensor applications dedicated for real-time healthcare monitoring purposes. This review paper therefore is expected to provide a critical analysis on OTFT developments, as well as recognize their research gaps to allow their fully commercialization in the near future.

Real-time healthcare monitoring system through haversine distance calculation-based global positioning system

Real-time healthcare monitoring system through haversine distance calculation-based global positioning system

Smart Wearable Internet of Medical Things Technologies, Artificial Intelligence-based Diagnostic Algorithms, and Real-Time Healthcare Monitoring Systems in COVID-19 Detection and Treatment

Smart Wearable Internet of Medical Things Technologies, Artificial Intelligence-based Diagnostic Algorithms, and Real-Time Healthcare Monitoring Systems in COVID-19 Detection and Treatment

Modified graphene-based nanocomposite material for smart textile biosensor to detect lactate from human sweat

Hydrophobic cotton fabric and chemically modified G-PU-RGO-PB paste based electrochemical wearable lactate biosensor provides on body monitoring for patient. Sensor contains three electrodes system designed by template method where working electrode (WE) and counter electrodes (CE) filled with modified G-PU-RGO-PB paste and Ag/AgCl were used to fill the reference electrode. In addition, embroidered conductive silver yarn work as a conductor was used to secure connection between printed electrodes and the device. Here, we present a suitable technique to get stable electron transfer catalytic activity while enzyme was immobilized over the working electrode. Electrode's performance was examined, using cyclic voltammetry technique (CV) in ferricyanide solution (5.0 mM-25mM), and found linear relationship with relative standard deviations (RSD) ∼0.2%. Lactate oxidase and chitosan solution was combined to the electrode surface for amperometric and differential pulse voltametric sensing. The limit of detection (LOD) of 0.4 mM and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of 1.3 mM for lactate was obtained from human sweat, respectively. This sensor gives excellent reproducibility to the lactate concentration after washing the sensor by domestic washing machine and its RSD was found 3.06%. We anticipate that the results, which have been achieved after analysis, would open up the fundamental studies in the area of wearable textile-based sensor for real time health care monitoring and medical diagnosis.

A Real-Time Wearable Physiological Monitoring System for Home-Based Healthcare Applications

The acquisition of physiological data are essential to efficiently predict and treat cardiac patients before a heart attack occurs and effectively expedite motor recovery after a stroke. This goal can be achieved by using wearable wireless sensor network platforms for real-time healthcare monitoring. In this paper, we present a wireless physiological signal acquisition device and a smartphone-based software platform for real-time data processing and monitor and cloud server access for everyday ECG/EMG signal monitoring. The device is implemented in a compact size (diameter: 30 mm, thickness: 4.5 mm) where the biopotential is measured and wirelessly transmitted to a smartphone or a laptop for real-time monitoring, data recording and analysis. Adaptive digital filtering is applied to eliminate any interference noise that can occur during a regular at-home environment, while minimizing the data process time. The accuracy of ECG and EMG signal coverage is assessed using Bland–Altman analysis by comparing with a reference physiological signal acquisition instrument (RHS2116 Stim/Recording System, Intan). Signal coverage of R-R peak intervals showed almost identical outcome between this proposed work and the RHS2116, showing a mean difference in heart rate of 0.15 ± 4.65 bpm and a Wilcoxon’s p value of 0.133. A 24 h continuous recording session of ECG and EMG is conducted to demonstrate the robustness and stability of the device based on extended time wearability on a daily routine.

Environmental bacteria engineered piezoelectric bio-organic energy harvester towards clinical applications

State-of-the-art biomedical applications including healthcare monitoring, in vivo real-time sensing and disease treatment largely relies on bio-piezoelectric platforms consisting of biocompatibility and piezoelectricity. However, the inability to design a high performance piezoelectric material with biocompatibility is the major challenges towards practical implementation. Here we present the concept and design principles of an biocompatible piezoelectric material with the assistance of environmental (hot spring) bacterial strain. The biological bacterial protein engineered the microstructure of organic polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) in order to design the porous bio-organic films with increased biocompatibility, piezoelectric phase content and crystallinity. The porous microstructure significantly enhances the piezoelectric coefficient (d33~ −43 pC/N) and piezoelectric figure of merit (FoMp~ 18.8 ×10−12 Pa−1) of the bio-organic film compared with non-porous pure PVDF (d33~ −0.85 pC/N, FoMp~ 8.5 ×10−15 Pa−1). The proof-of-concept of device designing is also studied, that is nanogenerator composed of bio-organic film is capable to generate maximum output power of as high as 640 mW/m2, possesses energy conversion efficiency of 62.5% which is further used for driving several commercial light emitting diodes (LEDs) and charge capacitors. The enhanced piezoelectric performance is attributed via porosity formation and validated through finite element method (FEM) based theoretical simulation. With the good biocompatibility and piezoelectric pressure sensitivity (1.26 VkPa−1 and 0.86 VkPa−1 in the pressure range of 0.01 −1 kPa and 2 −15 kPa respectively), the device was implemented towards clinical applications of real-time healthcare monitoring from subtle pulse pressure waveform detection to vibrotactile information collection. With its natural biocompatibility, easy to prepare formulation and superior energy harvesting performance, the bio-organic film offers attractive prospects towards the development of effective, sustainable and autonomous electromechanical device for next generation self-powered biomedical devices.

Laser-Processed Stretchable-Gradient Interconnection-Based Temperature Sensor for a Real-Time Monitoring System

Wearable epidermal sensor systems have gained tremendous attraction for real-time healthcare monitoring devices with different sensor geometry and device architectures. In this work, a stretchable-gradient interconnection is introduced to a nature-inspired kirigami–serpentine-based temperature sensor with an integration of a flexible printed circuit board to obtain real-time monitoring of body temperature with high accuracy and sustainability under complex mechanical conditions. The electrical and mechanical measurements with multiple testing processes are performed, and the results show a linear response at different temperature scales and highly robust properties over multiple strain tests. A three-layer wearable patch is designed to establish a conformable bonding to the human skin and obtain wireless real-time monitoring of body temperature, thus establishing a new approach toward real-time monitoring systems with high accuracy and stability over complex environments in the field of wearable electronics.

Roll-to-roll graphene films for non-disposable electrocardiogram electrodes

Graphene has good electrical properties, flexibility, and biocompatibility, making it an ideal material to monitor electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. However, the production cost and the feasibility of large-scale production limit the application of graphene electrodes. Here, we demonstrate a roll-to-roll (R2R) method to transfer graphene grown by open-R2R chemical vapor deposition onto an ethylene vinyl acetate/polyethylene terephthalate (EVA/PET) substrate to make non-disposable ECG electrodes. This method can produce a continuous graphene/EVA/PET film with 15 cm width, and the length can reach several meters. The graphene/EVA/PET film has excellent flexibility and transparency (75.08% transmittance at 780 nm). Compared with commercial silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrodes, R2R graphene electrodes have lower electrode–skin impedance below 1 kHz and can obtain ECG signals with similar performance to Ag/AgCl electrodes. Besides, R2R graphene electrodes have good washability. After ten times cleaning, the resistance of the R2R graphene electrode only increased by 23.2%, which was lower than that of the previous graphene electrodes. This work has great potential in the long-term and real-time healthcare monitoring system.

Catalytic effects of magnetic and conductive nanoparticles on immobilized glucose oxidase in skin sensors

Wearable skin sensors is a promising technology for real-time health care monitoring. They are of particular interest for monitoring glucose in diabetic patients. The concentration of glucose in sweat can be more than two orders of magnitude lower than in blood. In consequence, the scientific and technological efforts are focused in developing new concepts to enhance the sensitivity, decrease the limit of detection (LOD) and reduce the response time (RT) of glucose skin sensors. This work explores the effect of adsorbed superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) and conductive nanoparticles (CNPs) on carbon nanotube substrates (CNTs) used to immobilize glucose oxidase enzyme in the working electrode of skin sensors. MNPs and CNPs are made of magnetite and gold, respectively. The performance of the sensors was tested in standard buffer solution, artificial sweat, fresh sweat and on the skin of a healthy volunteer during an exercise session. In the case of artificial sweat, the presence of MNPs accelerated the RT from 7 to 5 s at the expense of increasing the LOD from 0.017 to 0.022 mM with slight increase of the sensitivity from 4.90 to 5.09 μAm M−1 cm−2. The presence of CNPs greatly accelerated the RT from 7 to 2 s and lowered the LOD from 0.017 to 0.014 mM at the expense of a great diminution of the sensitivity from 4.90 to 4.09 μAm M−1 cm−2. These effects were explained mechanistically by analyzing the changes in the concentration of free oxygen and electrons promoted by MNPs and CNPs in the CNTs and its consequences on the the glucose oxidation process.