Project: Vital Sign Monitoring for Home Health Care

In the proposed project, VitalHomeHealthCare, the goal is to develop a vital sign monitoring product adapted for home health care market. The basic version of the monitoring system should consist of a miniaturised self-contained wireless wearable sensor and one receiver module with capability to send vital patient signs data to a health care clinic remotely located. The miniaturised wireless sensor will be implemented as a wearable patch attached to the upper torso. The primary vitals signs implemented in this project would be_x000D_• Breathing _x000D_• ECG_x000D_• O2 saturation_x000D_• Temperature_x000D__x000D_The sensor will be implemented as a patch with a target dimension of 65x65 mm and 8 mm thickness. One part of the sensor will be disposable, consisting of adhesive fabric, conducting gel, PET-film with silver print (electrodes) and another part which will be charged and reused. The small size of sensor is possible to achieve because of recent technology breakthroughs. _x000D__x000D_One of the more important technological advancements is the introduction of UWB-radar for monitoring breathing. Breathing would with prior technology be measured by monitoring the variations in impedance either using electrodes located on either side of torso or with an elastic conducting rubber band around the torso. In contrast the UWB-radar sends out a well-defined radio energy pulse that echoes back to a receiver and the time delays are measured. This technology resembles ultrasound technique but the energy needed is much smaller compared to ultrasound and also the electronics can be made really small as the UWB radar is implemented as single CMOS chip. The radio frequencies are Ultra Wide Band UWB from 3.1 GHz up to 10.6 GHz. The basics for UWB-radar is to send out a radio pulse and record the echoes that bounces back when the radio wave transition a media with different dialectical properties. The lung wall is rich in blood and the lung itself is filled with air therefore will the echo from the lung wall be very distinct. Breathing measurement, using UWB, can be very reliable if the transmitter is focused on the lung. By integrating the UWB-radar into a wearable patch, attached on the torso, a good focus for the radar is achieved. _x000D__x000D_The receiver will receive patient life sign data and relay information via a GSM/3G/4G module. Several functions can be implemented such as continues monitoring and relaying of all vital sign measurements, relaying of patent vital signs after alarm activated or remote down load of life sign statistics or live measurements. The receiver module could be implemented using a Smartphone and as the whole vital sign system is portable it would be possible to be monitored the patient out side home, e.g. when going shopping. In this case GPS position would be very useful and could be requested and relayed in the case of triggered alarms._x000D__x000D_From a home care view the vital sign patch together with a receiver that can relay patient vital signs makes up a very easy system to use. Adding ECG, O2 saturation and temperature the CO of the most important vital signs parameters are monitored. Blood pressure is also an important vital sign parameter but it will require a blood pressure cuff mounted on the arm and is thus best implemented as a stand-alone sensor. Glucose sensor is also another additional sensor that will be interesting to supplement to the developed product in the proposed project, VitalHomeHealthCare . The blood pressure and glucose sensors will however not be implemented in this project._x000D_

Acronym	VitalHomeHealthCare (Reference Number: 7911)
Duration	01/04/2013 - 15/12/2015
Project Topic	The project goal is to put a new product, for vital signs monitoring, on the home health care market. The technology should be integrated to increasing market acceptance and usability. The developed product, vital sign monitoring system, will be clinically tested within the project.
Network	Eurostars
Call	Eurostars Cut-Off 9

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
2	Novelda AS	Partner	Norway
2	Novosense AB	Coordinator	Sweden