Improving the quality of health and life
Aiming at introducing a new family of telemedicine systems, the HEARTS project work is a paradigm of an effective combination of tele-monitoring, wireless technologies and decision support capabilities. Based on an open architecture the system could be easily customised according to specific needs by addition, removal or replacement of commercially available components. By integrating classical with advanced and adaptive decision support methods, the system has the potential to reflect the specific health behaviour of each individual that is being monitored. Moreover, the system allows accurate disease prediction rather than diagnosis, which is particularly important for healthy people, who work in high stress jobs. One of the key features included is the non-invasive acquisition of information through the use of "wearable" sensors that collect biometric and environmental data. These sensors are interconnected through a wireless network and constitute one of the basic modules of the HEARTS prototype, namely the Personal Health Network. More specifically, the developed sensors allow ECG monitoring through the use of up to nine analogue inputs per ECG in two modules. They also involve respiratory monitoring through a waistband and auxiliary monitoring for instance of body temperature as well as various analogue and serial digital inputs for external instrumentation. Additional sensors include accelerometers for environmental temperature and air pollution level measurements. Although the HEARTS prototype was designed with the focus on cardiovascular diseases, wearable sensors may also apply for a wide variety of other health related conditions. Various sorts of collaborations are sought with medical equipment manufacturers. For more information please click at: http://heartsproject.datamat.it/hearts(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)
