Internet of things based vital signs monitoring system: A prototype validity test

Abstract

The advent of the internet of things (IoT) has resulted in an upsurge in the deployment of digital healthcare systems enabling patients' health conditions to be remotely monitored. This article presents an intelligent and automated IoT-based vital signs monitoring system to aid in patient care. A theoretical framework was established to guide the development of a prototype. It encompasses the patient, IoT sensors, input and storage unit, and data processing, analysis and data transmission. The prototype is equipped with the capability of sensing a patient's body temperature, heart rate, and respiration rate in real time and transmits the data to a cloud data repository for storage and analysis. Alerts are sent to caregivers using SMS, email, and voice calls where urgent attention is required for the patient. The voice call is to ensure a caregiver does not miss the alert since SMS and email may not be checked on time. To ensure privacy of patients, a caregiver has to be biometrically verified by either fingerprint or facial pattern. The experimental results confirmed the accuracy of the data gathered by the prototype, privacy of patients is also guaranteed compared to other benchmark systems.