Proposal: Real-time Cardiac Patient Monitoring via Wearable Sensors

This project proposal outlines a system for real-time monitoring of cardiac patients using wearable sensors and smartphones. The research aims to determine the effectiveness of these technologies in providing continuous health data. The proposed system comprises wearable sensors that transmit data to a smartphone, which then relays the information to a remote data server accessible by healthcare professionals. The proposal includes a literature review highlighting the benefits of wearable sensors in healthcare, a detailed plan of work encompassing patient recruitment, training, and data analysis, and a risk assessment. The project anticipates that the system will improve patient care by enabling timely interventions based on real-time heart rate data. However, the limitations include potential delays in alarm generation and battery issues. Future directions focus on overcoming these challenges to enhance the reliability of the monitoring system. The project includes a Gantt chart for project timeline and references to support the research.

Running head: PROPOSAL
Proposal for real-time monitoring of cardiac patients using wearable sensor and smartphone
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PROPOSAL
Aims/Research question/Objectives
Just as the name implies, wearable sensors refer to smart electronic devices that can
be directly incorporated inside the human body, with the aim of providing clinically pertinent
data and monitoring the health status (Majumder, Mondal and Deen 2017). Cardiac
monitoring encompasses the intermittent or continuous monitoring of activity of the heart.
The research question is given below:
Can wearable sensor and smartphone help in real-time monitoring of cardiac
patients?
Aims
 Implementing wearable sensor and smartphone for real-time monitoring of cardiac
patients
Objectives
 To determine the effects of wearable sensor and smartphone for real-time monitoring
of cardiac patients
Rationale for choosing the topic
In recent years, there has been rapid progress in delivery of healthcare service and low
expenditure wireless communication. Research evidences have elucidated on the huge
potential of wearable sensors in generation of big data, in relation to assisted living and
biomedicine (Mezghani et al. 2015). Taking into consideration their easy availability,
accuracy, reliability, and low cost, wearable sensors have been identified as a promising field
in health engineering. Often people living in remote and rural regions cannot access or afford
healthcare facilities, which leads to deterioration of their health status (Tran et al. 2016).
Hence, wearable sensors will be implemented in this project, for remote monitoring of
cardiac status.

2PROPOSAL
Summary of literature review
According to Yao, Swetha and Zhu (2018) outstanding properties of material and
large surface area directly contribute to the usage of nanomaterials in wearable sensors. These
wearable sensors are extremely sensitive and can be comfortably integrated to textiles or the
human skin, in order to effectively monitor human physiological parameters. Not only do
these sensors help in continuous health monitoring, they also facilitate sports activity
tracking. Andreu-Perez et al. (2015) suggested that stimulation implant and smart sensing
technologies are vital for the management of a plethora of chronic diseases. The researchers
also highlighted the use of sensing devices for the monitoring and effective management of
preeclampsia, a pregnancy-associated disorder, which when left untreated threatens the life of
both foetus and mother.
According to Tamura et al. (2017) wearable monitoring of healthcare was proposed
during late 90s and it has huge potential for the prevention and diagnosis of illnesses, without
causing any inconvenience or discomfort to the user. The researchers elaborated on the
efficacy of pulse rate monitor, cuff less blood pressure monitor, motion sensor, and Deep
Body thermometer (DBT) for the health surveillance of patients. All of the aforementioned
sensors produce an alarm, depending on comparison with pre-formulated threshold. These
alarms help clinicians to assess the health status of patients and determine the need of a visit.
Vesnic-Alujevic, Breitegger and Pereira (2018) also affirmed the findings and stated
that usage of wearable sensor for diagnosis, monitoring and management of patients not only
affects medical practice but creates a significant impact on the association with one’s mind
and body. It was postulated that wearable sensors generate a transformative social function
and place an emphasis on socialising, sharing, and collective deliberation on individual

3PROPOSAL
issues. Wearable devices gather particular health data such as, blood glucose level,
movement, fitness level, and heart rate. Hence, the evidences highlight the significance of
wearable technology in health monitoring and management.
Plan of work
The system will comprise of three components namely, wearable sensor, smartphone,
and remote data server. All patients who seek care at the cardiovascular unit of a hospital, and
reside in remote and rural regions will be provided with wearable sensors. The initial step
will comprise of training the healthcare professionals about the functioning of wearable
sensors, in relation to monitoring of motion, muscle activity, cardiac activity, and brain
functioning. The second step will involve training the patients about the use of the sensors
and explaining them about the associated comfort, adherence and benefits.
The Zephyr BT sensor will transmit wireless data about heart rate of the patients to
the smartphone (Android 4.4 version or more) via Bluetooth low energy. The remote location
of the patient will be accessed using inbuilt GPS of the smartphone. Zephyr BT will be
integrated in the project based on its reliability, accuracy, comfort and low cost (Fajingbesi et
al. 2017). The data server will allow doctors, medical centres and nurses to observe and
immediately diagnose the medical status of the patients, while being at the hospital. With the
aim of preventing unauthorised access to data, the server will be accessed only using a
password and user ID.
Stages Jan
20
Feb
20
Mar
20
Apr
20
May
20
Jun
20
Jul
20
Aug
20
Sep
20
Recruitment
of patients
Training for

4PROPOSAL
patients
Training for
healthcare
professionals
Monitoring
heart rate
Analysing the
alarms
Writing a
report
Dissemination
of findings
Gantt chart for the project
Data collection and analysis
Data will be transmitted from the wearable sensor to the smartphone in binary format.
On detecting heart rate that exceeds the threshold for the physiological parameter, the
smartphone will generate an alarming message that will be immediately sent to the data
server, thus facilitating the healthcare professionals to assess the need for treatment. The
remote data server will extract the collected information and transfer them to the doctor’s
interface, and facilitate reaching the patient on time and/or sending an ambulance for patient
transfer to the hospital in emergency situations. Technical glitches or removing the wearable
sensor might lead to incorrect results.

5PROPOSAL
Risk assessment, health and safety issues and/or ethical issues
The sensor does not pose any significant risk and will not cause skin reaction or nerve
damage. However, wireless nature of the device exposes the patients to security
vulnerabilities and restricting any third party access to the records is essential. While it will
help in remote monitoring of the patient’s cardiovascular status, gaining access to huge data
about health might make the patients hypochondriac or obsessive. Informed consent shall
also be taken from the patients, prior to incorporating wearable sensor (Liu et al. 2018).
Moreover, efforts will be taken to ensure that none of the patients or healthcare professionals
are subjected to any kind of physical or mental harm.
Limitations and future directions
It is anticipated that following practical implementation of the wearable sensor
devices, physicians and nursing staff working at the hospital will be able to keep a track on
the cardiac functioning of the patients in a better manner. This will help them provide timely
care to those who report abnormal heart rate, thereby reducing rates of mortality and
morbidity. However, alarm generation might get delayed due to weak internet signals in
remote areas. Furthermore, battery issue of the wearable sensor might lead to false alarm that
would impede care process. Future direction must aim at overcoming false alarm and battery
problems.

6PROPOSAL
References
Andreu-Perez, J., Leff, D.R., Ip, H.M. and Yang, G.Z., 2015. From wearable sensors to smart
implants-–toward pervasive and personalized healthcare. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical
Engineering, 62(12), pp.2750-2762.
Fajingbesi, F.E., Olanrewaju, R.F., Pampori, B.R., Khan, S. and Yacoob, M., 2017. Real
Time Telemedical Health Care Systems with Wearable Sensors. Asian Journal of
Pharmaceutical Research and Health Care, 9(3), pp.138-144.
Liu, D., Zeng, S., Deng, F. and Zhou, J., 2018. Existing Problems and Solution of Informed
Consent in Clinical Research. Chinese Medical Ethics, 31(6), pp.732-735.
Majumder, S., Mondal, T. and Deen, M.J., 2017. Wearable sensors for remote health
monitoring. Sensors, 17(1), p.130.
Mezghani, E., Exposito, E., Drira, K., Da Silveira, M. and Pruski, C., 2015. A semantic big
data platform for integrating heterogeneous wearable data in healthcare. Journal of medical
systems, 39(12), p.185.
Tamura, T., Maeda, Y., Sekine, M. and Huang, M., 2017. The Role of Wearable Monitor for
Healthcare. In Advances in Science and Technology (Vol. 100, pp. 159-165). Trans Tech
Publications.
Tran, B.X., Nguyen, L.H., Nong, V.M. and Nguyen, C.T., 2016. Health status and health
service utilization in remote and mountainous areas in Vietnam. Health and quality of life
outcomes, 14(1), p.85.
Vesnic-Alujevic, L., Breitegger, M. and Pereira, Â.G., 2018. ‘Do-it-yourself’healthcare?
Quality of health and healthcare through wearable sensors. Science and engineering
ethics, 24(3), pp.887-904.

7PROPOSAL
Yao, S., Swetha, P. and Zhu, Y., 2018. Nanomaterial‐Enabled wearable sensors for
healthcare. Advanced healthcare materials, 7(1).