Wireless Sensor Network Technology for Clinical Monitoring

Wireless Sensor Network Technology for Clinical Monitoring

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Washington University
Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Washington University
BJC HealthCare
Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, Washington University

Researchers

Prof. Tom Bailey

Octav Chipara

Prof. Chenyang Lu (PI)

Prof. Catalin Roman

Chengjie Wu

Collaborators

Chris Brooks

Prof. Roger Chamberlain

Real-time patient monitoring will enable timely prediction of clinical deterioration of non-ICU inpatients. A recent clinical study has shown that an automated electronic scoring system integrated with electronic medical records can reduce the delay in recognizing clinical deterioration and activating rapid response teams. To provide timely care of patients with deteriorating conditions, it is essential to update existing electronic medical records with real-time sensor data continuously collected from patients. To meet this challenge we are developing and evaluating novel wireless sensor network technologies for real-time patient monitoring. Each wireless sensor used in this study consists of an embedded computer for on-board processing, a radio interface for wireless communication, and a pulse oximeter for collecting heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SpO2). Wireless sensors attached to patients will continuously collect sensor data and transmit them to an electronic medical record system over a wireless network.

The project is organized in three phases: (1) development and evaluation of wireless network protocols for reliable data collection on an existing wireless sensor network testbed at the Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE); (2) integration and evaluation of pulse oximeters with wireless sensor networks on the CSE testbed; (3) trials with patients in a clinic at the BJC HeathCare.

The wireless sensor network technology we are developing has three novel features: (1) we will develop new network protocols that guarantee reliable data collection from (mobile or stationary) patients; (2) we will develop an open and flexible software platform that allows medical experts to plug in different data processing algorithms and sensors; (3) the proposed software platform will seamlessly integrate real-time sensor data into electronic medical record systems.

Papers

O. Chipara, C. Brooks, S. Bhattacharya, C. Lu, R.D. Chamberlain, G.-C. Roman, and T.C. Bailey, Reliable Real-time Clinical Monitoring Using Sensor Network Technology, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium, November 2009.

O. Chipara, C. Brooks, S. Bhattacharya, C. Lu, R. Chamberlain, G.-C. Roman, and T.C. Bailey, Reliable Data Collection from Mobile Users for Real-Time Clinical Monitoring, Technical Report WUCSE-2008-25, Washington University.

Acknowledgement
The project described was supported by Award Number UL1RR024992 from the National Center For Research Resources. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Research Resources or the National Institutes of Health.