On Line Real Time Health Monitoring of ICU Patients using ARM7

Abstract
Care of critically ill patient requires prompt & accurate decisions so that life-protecting & lifesaving therapy can be properly applied. Because of these requirements, ICUs have become widely established in hospitals. Difficulty found in most hospitals is that Expert has to frequently visit the patient & asses his/her condition by measuring different parameters. These systems works when there is any emergency by using different wireless technologies. This paper is mainly based on continuous monitoring aspect of ICU patients. I have designed, developed a reliable, energy efficient patient monitoring system. It is able to send parameters of patient in real time. It enables the doctors to monitor patients parameters (temp, heart beat , ECG) in real time using http protocol The timely manner of conveying real time monitored parameter to doctor is given highest priority. Hence On line Real time Health monitoring is becoming popular for the ICU patients.

Connection via GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) 1.2. Proposed system: Projected system involves different sensors, ARM 7 microprocessor, GSM / GPRS UART modem .The sensors continuously sense the parameters of ICU patient & send to ARM 7 microprocessor. Processor converts these in to digital form and then these parameters are transmitted to server PC by establishing HTTP connection via GPRS (General Packet Radio Service).

Keywords: Sensors, ARM7 microprocessor, GSM /GPRS UART modem, HTTP protocol

Sensor 1

Sensor 2

Sensor 3

ARM 7 - TDMI Processor

1. Introduction
1.1. Problem definition: Currently there are number of health monitoring systems available for the ICU patients. All these systems works mainly when there is any emergency occurs. It means information is transmitted to server mainly when there is any abnormality occurs. But main problem with these systems is that it is not capable of transmitting data continuously also range limitations of different wireless technologies used in the systems .So to overcome these limitations of systems I have proposed a new system This system is able to transmit the parameters of patient continuously and over long distance by establishing HTTP

Sensor sense Physiological parameters

Sends real time on
Bed Side PC / Local PC

line data
RS-232 GSM /GPRS TTL UART modem

Patient in ICU

To Server PC (Expert Doctor)

Long Distance

Fig.1 proposed system

2. Actually developed system:

The actual system is shown in figure. Here I have designed 3 sensors it uses temp, ECG, heart beat sensor. All the parameters are continuously sensed by sensors and then send to processor. It converts these parameters into digital form and then these parameters are send to modem and by establishing http communication (via GSM / GPRS ) using AT commands transmitted to server PC .On server side I have developed VB.Net application which downloads all the data which is transmitted. And then display these parameters in the form of waveforms.

I have designed 5 v power supply using bridge rectifier, regulator IC 7805 and a filter. This 5 v supply I have given to the IC 1117 It is a 3.3 v regulator IC .This IC takes 5 v as a input and gives 3.3 v as its output which is then given to the ARM 7 microprocessor. I also designed another power supply which is required for modem; it is also 5 v supply, with high power and high current capability.

3.1.2 Hear Beat sensor:

Power Suppl

AC Mains

4.3V To 5

Sen sor1 Sens or 2 Sens or 3

AR M 7 Proc esso r LPC 2148

M A X 2 3 2

M A X 2 3 2

G P R S M od e m

Fig.3 Heart beat sensor

+ 9 v / - 9v

5 V to 3.3 V

Display of All Sensed Parameters on Server PC in the form of WAVEFORMS

For Heart Beat Sensor I am using IC LM 358.Its dual low power operational amplifier Licit consists of a super bright red LED and light detector. LED needs to be super bright as the light must pass through finger and detected at other end. When heart pumps a pulse of blood through blood vessels, finger becomes slightly more opaque so less light reached at the detector. With each heart pulse detector signal varies this variation is converted to electrical pulse.

3.1.3 Temperature sensor:

Fig2. Actually developed system

3. Designing:
The designing part includes basically three sections as follows, Hardware design Ready to use hardware modules Software design
Fig.4 Temperature sensor

3.1 Hardware design:

It includes Power supply design, Temperature sensor, Heart beat sensor, Electrocardiograph sensor and RS-232 connector circuit

3.1.1 Power supply circuit:

The hardware of project requires different power supplies. 5 v: for temperature sensor circuit, heartbeat circuit, RS 232 connector circuit. 3.3 v: for ARM 7 TDMI microprocessor. +/- 9 v: for ECG sensor circuit.

For temperature sensor circuit, I am using LM35 its Precision Centigrade Temperature Sensor. LM35 series are precision integrated-circuit temperature sensors, whose output voltage is linearly proportional to Celsius temperature.LM35 is rated to operate over a 55 to +150C temperature range. This is a 3 pin IC input, output and ground pin.

3.1.4 Electrocardiograph sensor:

For ECG I am using IC AD624AD its a precision Instrumentation Amplifier IC. The amplifier takes the input from 3 Leads / electrodes which are connected to the patient. The lead arrangement is as shown in fig.

3.2 Ready to use hardware modules: For this section I am using modem which is readily available in market by rhydolabz and using 9 v power supplies for ECG circuit. 3.2.1 GSM/GPRS UART modem:
It is built with Quad Band GSM/GPRS engine, works on 850 / 900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz. Frequency band can be set by AT commands. The Modem is coming with RS232 interface, which allows you connect PC as well as microcontroller with MAX232. The baud rate is configurable from 9600-115200 through AT command. Modem is having internal TCP/IP stack to enable you to connect with internet via GPRS. It is suitable for SMS, Voice as well as DATA transfer application in M2M interface. Using this modem, you can make audio calls, SMS, Read SMS; attend the incoming calls and internet through simple AT commands. This module connects to specific application and air interface. It is integrated with HTTP protocol. AT commands are developed to use HTTP protocol easily which will be very useful for those data transfer applications.

Fig.5 ECG sensor

Fig.6 Lead placement

Fig.8 SIM 900 modems.

3.1.5 RS-232 connector circuit:

This connector is a serial port connector. It is used to connect the hardware to the modem. It is used to send the sensed parameters from patient to the modem, which then transmits all the parameters to the server PC via http protocol via GPRS. Another RS 232 connector is used to download the code into processor.

3.3 Software Design:

This includes the coding of ARM 7 processor and coding for downloading of data and for GUI (Graphical User Interface) on server side. For HTTP : AT+ commands For ARM 7: Embedded c using Keil software. For GUI : VB.Net

3.3.1 for HTTP:

For http communication establishment and for data transfer I am using AT commands. These are used in coding of ARM 7 processor. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is a TCP/IP based communication protocol which is used to deliver virtually all files and other data, collectively called resources, on the World Wide Web. A browser is works as an HTTP client because it sends requests to an HTTP server which is called Web server. The Web Server then sends responses back to the client. It is the protocol used for the web. It is based on a request/request paradigm.SIM900 has an embedded TCP/IP stack that is driven by AT commands and enables the host application to easily access the Internet HTTP service.

Fig.7 RS-232 connector

Steps to be followed to data transfer: STEP 1: Set the bearer profile. STEP2: To open GPRS context. STEP 3: HTTP POST method STEP 4: Post the data STEP 5: Post sessions start STEP 6: Post successfully

Reas Data from Port Pins of ARM 7 processor (TEMP, HB, ECG)

3.3.2 for GUI:

For graphical user interface I am using Visual studio 2008. I have designed a GUI using VB.Net .On the server side the code is developed. This code generates a GUI which includes blocks for ECG, Temp & HB, and no. of samples; connect GPRS, Received data, system error message.

Make array of the data which is read by sensors.

Using HTTTP POST method sends all the data to UART buffer.

3.3.3For ARM 7:
The ARM7TDMI-S is a general purpose 32-bit microprocessor, offers high performance and very low power consumption. ARM architecture is based on RISC principles, instruction set and related decode mechanism are simpler than CISC Pipeline techniques employed ARM Pprocessor supports both 32-bit and 16-bit instructions via the ARM and Thumb instruction sets.
Data is sent in packet form, to server PC.

START

Check the data on SERVER PC in the form of WAVEFORMS (Server PC uses VB based

Initialization of all ports of ARM 7 microprocessor

Fig.9 Flowchart of code

Initialization channels

of

UART,

ADC

Initialization of SIM 900 Modem

ARM 7 having Various 32-bit timers, single or dual 10-bit 8 channel ADC(s), 10-bit DAC, PWM channels and 47 GPIO lines with up to 9 edge or level sensitive external interrupt pins make these microcontrollers particularly suitable for industrial control and medical systems, CPU Clock unto 60MHz I am using LPC 2148 IC for ARM7.For microprocessor I am using Keil software. The coding includes different steps as shown in flowchart.

4. Results
Initialization of GPRS for Modem

Initialization of communication for Modem

HTTP

The result of this project includes results of compilation, sensors and GUI. The compilation of C code is done using Micro Vision Keil software and indicated the generation of Hex file. The sensor results are generated at different conditions like normal, after running, after wake up etc.

4.1Results of ARM7 code compilation:

6. Future modification or enhancement:

There is always chance to improve any system as research & development is an endless process. Our system is no exception to this phenomenon. The following measurements can be done in future Blood pressure Pulse oximetry Galvanic-Skin Resistance Amenia WEBCAM technology can visualize patient situations In future We can design a system which works in two ways, that means when the expert receives the data in the form of waveform, after observing these waveforms the expert will suggest or prescribe the drug for that situation or condition of patient.

4/23/2012

On Line Real Time Monitoring

Fig.10

7. Conclusions
4.2 Result of Temp & HB Sensors:
From the above designed project I can conclude that we are able to transmit the data which is sensed from ICU patient to the server PC by establishing http communication to server via GPRS .The data is transmitted to server in real time, but if there is any network error or GPRS error then the data transmission might be get delayed. We can also check the data transmission and data downloading status on hyper terminal. So that we can remove the error if any. The leads of the ECG sensor must be stick properly to the patient, which is nearest to the chest side of patient. So that we get more and more correct ECG.

References
Fig.11

5 Final Hardware modules:

[1]IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, VOL. 4, NO. 1, FEB 2010 11 An EnergyEfficient ASIC for Wireless Body Sensor Networks in Medical Applications Xiao yu Zhang, Hanjun Jiang, Member, IEEE, Lingwei Zhang, Chun Zhang, Zhihua Wang, Senior Member, IEEE, and Xinkai Chen [2]Design and Implementation of Wireless Biomedical Sensor Networks for ECG Home Health Monitoring 08 International Conference on Electronic Design December 1-3,2008, Penang, Malaysia Rozeha A. Rashid, Mohd Rozaini Abd Rahim, Mohd Adib Sarijari, Nurhija Mahalin [3]2011 International Conference on Information and Network Technology IACSIT Press, Singapore Remote Patient Monitoring- An Implementation in ICU Ward Arun E 1+, Marimuthu V2, Pradeep E3 ,Karthikeyan M4 [4]Wireless Transmission Design for Health Monitoring at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Wei Chen1, Son Tung Nguyen1, Roland Coops1 1. Department of Industrial Design,Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven Netherlands,Sidarto Bambang Oetomo1,2, Loe Feijs1 [5] TRG wireless ECG sensor for mesical Heathcare Application by Nor Syahidatual nadiah Ismail , Sharifah H.S. Ariffin and

Fig.12 Complete designed hardware