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Healthcare Monitoring System and transforming Monitored data into Real time
Clinical Feedback based on IoT using Raspberry Pi

Conference Paper · January 2019

DOI: 10.1109/ICOMET.2019.8673393

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 2019 International Conference on Computing, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies – iCoMET 2019

Healthcare Monitoring System and

transforming Monitored data into Real
time Clinical Feedback based on IoT using
Raspberry Pi
Imran khan Kamran Zeb Asif Mahmood
Waqar Uddin
School of Electrical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering College of EME
School of Electrical engineering
Pusan National University Pusan National University National University of Science
Pusan National University
Busan South Korea Busan South Korea and Technology
Busan South Korea
[email protected] [email protected] Islamabad Pakistan [email protected]
[email protected]

Muhammad Adil Khan Saif-ul-Islam Hee Je Kim

School of Electrical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering
Air University Pusan National university Pusan National University
Islamabad Pakistan Busan South Korea Busan South Korea
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—In recent decade significantly rise in chronic [5]. These models will be inadequate to overcome challenges
diseases and ageing population ratio in world, demand efficient of healthcare services in increasing ageing society.
Health monitoring system (HMS) for comfort of people. This Advancement in computing technologies,
approach is not only cost effective but also a feasible alternative communication and intelligent technologies like sensors ,
to traditional healthcare. The aged peoples and patients having make the dream of smart environment possible. Health
chronic diseases refrain visit to health institutions (hospitals and monitoring system (HMS) is one such example. Due to its
nursing homes etc.) as a result it reduces burden on health cutting edge features they attracts considerable attention in
institutions. In this paper we proposed IoT-based ,intelligent recent years. HMSs emerge as encouraging solution to the
HMS which continuously monitors patient’s health parameters
decline health situation of aging population. They have the
like blood pressure ,heart beat and ECG. Data from blood
pressure sensor, heart rate sensor and ECG sensor automatically
capability to ensure e-health facility to overcome the need of
monitored by Arduino UNO and Pi-camera attached to the rapidly enhancing population. HMS system monitor and
raspberry pi for video. Arduino UNO sends sensor data to examines any health situation that the elder person may have,
raspberry pi which fed data to server’s database using Wi-Fi, includes monitoring how their daily activity carries out. These
finally server sent data to webpage, which updates every 2 systems not only make old citizen’s life independent for a long
minutes. Doctor access data anywhere using internet and give time but also make medical care services more sustainable by
feedback accordingly using text. providing e-health service at their door step. Avoiding frequent
Keywords— Internet of things, healthcare, sensors network, visit of aged people to hospital, will reduce healthcare cost and
Arduino UNO ,Raspberry pi, Realtime patient monitoring system. reducing pressure on overall health system.

II. MOTIVATION
I. INTRODUCTION
The real time monitoring system suggested here deals with the
In recent Ageing population is significantly rising in recent
years than ever before(1). According to report(2) the number healthcare application of IoT. One can facilitate senior citizen
of individuals age 50 or above will surge to 2 billion by 2050, with good medical care support at their door step with use of
another report published by World health Organization advanced technologies like Internet of Things. Health
(WHO) revealed that in 2013 there was 7.2 million healthcare monitoring system already suggested by some authors, but
worker shortage and predicated to cross 12.9 million by they used unwearable pulse rate and temperature sensors[6].
2035(3).These elderly population suffer from chronic diseases Those who proposed the use of wearable sensors[7] are not
among the most that are commonly monitored and treated are prioritize the storage of patient health-related readings on
blood pressure , diabetes and cardiac arrhythmia(4). These cloud to be easily accessed by physician, which subsequently
typical diseases combined with the naturally occurring does not achieve the objective of remote area health care
diseases ;continuously decline in cognitive and physical monitoring system. Although some publishers[6]proposed
abilities of elderly people, which reduces the chances of many health monitoring system using cloud computing, but the
aged people from living independently, in their own homes. sensor used are neither decisive due to its low efficiency nor
For many years traditional exams were the standard way to physically wearable. And the systems using accurate and
measure blood pressure, heart beat and glucose level in a wearable sensor are costly, at same time its access and data
specialized healthcare center. Conventional health monitoring storage are also restricted to the access of physician, while
models are inconvenient and time-consuming for all involved

978-1-5386-9509-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

monitoring the patient condition. All these health-care systems [11] ATMEGA 32 was used for monitoring blood pressure,
are reviewed by authors and found the deficiencies up to body temperature and pulse rate. For serial communication he
certain degree in a different way. So, authors suggested a used RS232 interface with GSM module, all the measured
health monitoring arrangement which ensure tradeoff between parameters were sent to doctors. Mathan Kumar et al[12] used
accuracy, cost , power and wearability with consideration of android technology for remote patient monitoring system. Ppm
remotely accessed data. For easily access by any legitimate and LM35 sensors were interfaced with PIC16F887A
person all the data in proposed system is automatically stored microcontroller data was collected by android mobile
in Server. The proposed prototype will have cutting edge with application through GSM module and Bluetooth. In the
proposed system MLX90614 contactless sensor is used for
patient’s data security by introducing security controls like
temperature monitoring, A0813 is used for monitoring pulse
authentication by password & ID and storage for long time. This
system also uses advanced sensors for accurate results, cheap in price
rate while AD8232 helps in monitoring ECG of patients.
to be affordable for common citizen, portable to be easily carried, Whole data is sensed and collected by Arduino board which
rapid data transfer and fast communication between doctor and then fed to Raspberry pi and transferred to server through Wi-
patient using Raspberry Pi. As far as the authors knowledge till date Fi dongle. The dynamic webpage is updating every two
no such system is suggested which look at the factors(accuracy, cost minutes after receiving data from server. Doctor can diagnose
etc.) This health-care system will not only save time but also patients’ condition by analyzing data shown on monitor
minimize efforts which usually senior citizens made by frequently screen.
visiting to hospital and awaited in queues. The people will be IV. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
facilitated by using proposed healthcare system, at their door step and
medical personnel can take necessary steps during any abnormal The System architecture includes two main sections.
conditions. • Hardware architecture
III. LITERATURE REVIEW • Software architecture
A. Hardware Architecture
Hasmah Mansor et al [8] aimed at LM35 temperature sensor
for measuring body temperature and interface LM35 sensor Health monitoring system consisting of sensors along with
with Arduino UNO board. Thereafter website is created using peripheries for valuable operation. Here discussed prototype of
SQL database in which data is stored, collected by Arduino. hardware use:
Medical personnel can easily approach to webpage by just 1) Raspberry pi
login. Through infrared receiver and transmitter of raspberry Raspberry pi 2 model B is a uni-board microcomputer
pi pulse rate of patients were monitored and thermistor was as shown in Fig. 2 having 40 GPIO pins, 4 USB ports, HDMI
used to sense temperature of patient’s body. Terminal Lx of d port to connect with LCD, Display connector (DSI), camera
along with their feature and contribution in making the connector (CSI), 5V power supply port, SD card slot at the
operation of health monitoring system possible. we have back side of the board for storing data and loading operating
Raspberry pi 2, different sensors, pi camera, Arduino Nano system, audio video jack and Ethernet port are the key feature.
(used as ADC), Power supply, LCD, Key board, Wi-Fi Dongle Though, it is very low cost yet powerful and effective tool for
etc. The block diagram shown Fig.1, gives the outline of interfacing at the same time with different
system operation. devices[13].Comparing with the previous model ,this model is
fast and powerful on the based on ARMv7 32-bit processor.

Fig. 2. Raspberry Pi

2) Raspberry Pi Camera Module

Pi camera module is compatible and specially design for
raspberry pi as shown in Fig.3, comprising of Sony IMX219
eight-megapixel sensor contrasted with 5-megapixel Omni
vision OV5647 sensor of the first Pi camera module is perfect
and uniquely plan for raspberry pi. Pi camera is used for
photographs along with high definition videos and which is
then connected to raspberry pi using 15cm long ribbon cable
Fig. 1. Hardware Architecture through CSI(camera serial interface). Raspberry pi peripherals
have cutting edge with the availability of open source
raspberry pi was used for display [9]. In [10] body temperature libraries. Pi camera is proficient for 2592 x 1944-pixel images
and pulse rate were also monitored using raspberry pi. In his and able for 720p60, 1080p30 and 640x480p60/90 to
research article he focused on integrating cloud computing and support[14].
health sensor network data, for storage of data Amazon EC2
cloud service is used provided by Amazon Web Service. In
 A0813heartbeat sensor is working on Photo
plethysmography (PPG) principle. Changes in blood volume
in any organ of the body results in changing light intensity
through the vascular organ/region. Thus, blood volume flow
rate is computed from the rate of heart beat pulses, since light
is captivated by the blood, the pulses of heart beat is
proportional to the signal pulse. The timing related with these
Fig.3. Raspberry Pi Camera Module pulses is much more significant in the situation when
monitoring the pulse rate.
3) Arduino UNO
Uno board consists of 14 digital input and output pins ,in
which 6 is used for generating PWM. It’s based on the
Atmega 328P and open source design with 16Mhz clock
frequency as shown in Fig. 4. For data storage it can be
interfaced conveniently with flash memory of 32kb, USB.
Using as a serial device, ICSP header is available to interface
it directly and stored data can be easily reset by just clicking Fig.6. A0813 Pulse Sensor
the reset button[15].Remarkable feature of ADC (Analog to
digital converter) increase its importance with specially The heartbeat sensor comprising photodiode(light detecting
assigned pins(A0 to A5) which is capable to read analog data. resistor) and infrared LED for detecting finger’s pulses. On
With 10-bit inbuilt ADC make it convenient for Arduino UNO one side photodiode is located while on the other side infrared
distinguish 1024 analog values. It can scale analog voltage LED is located. When tissue is illuminated by the light
values from 0 to 5 volts into different 1024 integer values. ,photodiode captures the reflected rays[6]. The detector gives
electrical signals as output which basically shows the pulse
rate monitored by the pulse sensor. The proposed pulse rate
sensor illustrated in Fig.6 has distinguish features of +5VDC
operating voltage with compact in size and illuminated LED
for heartbeat indication.
6) ECG SENSOR MODULE (AD8232):
ECG sensor AD8232 is a device used to measure and check
the electrical activity of the heart, stands for electrocardiogram
as shown in Fig.7. After measuring the heart activity, it is
Fig.4. Arduino UNO plotted or mapped according to heart functioning. Analog
4) Temperature sensor: output of ECG is sensed and converter to digital by Arduino
MLX90614 a Contactless infrared temperature sensor as Nano to fed it to raspberry pi ,as raspberry pi cannot analyze
name show ,it can measure temperature without making a analog signal. Measuring or plotting an ECG is a noisy one.
physical contact as shown in Fig.5. MLX90614 can measure AD8232 sensor module is especially designed for it to work as
two different temperatures Ambient(environment) temperature an operational amplifier (op amp) which is used to amplify
and object temperature(desired). MLX90614 sensors have and get a clear signal from PR and QT intervals. This module
ranges from -70 to 380°C for object temperature and from -40 has also an LED which flashes every time with heart beat.
to 85°C for ambient temperature. Remarkable feature is ,it can AD8232 module has also a 3.5mm audio/video jack through
sense temperature of moving bodies with less than 500ms which sensor cable can be connected. Sensor cable is a three-
, it will measure more efficiently if the distance is conductor cable having biomedical pads on each head of each
short between object and sensor. conductor. Holes in AD8232 cannot use directly first we will
5) PULSE SENSOR A0813 solder a male to male header pins in it and then used it. ECG is
based on two basics things PR interval and QR interval[16].

Fig.5. MLX90614 Temperature Sensor Fig.7. AD8232 ECG sensor

 1) Sensor Cable : algorithms . IDE is an effective platform for researcher to
AD8232 ECG sensor module has audio jack to connect develop sensors related project, Programmers and project
a sensor cable. Sensor cable as shown in Fig.8 has three development professionals . Arduino IDE is openly accessed
conductors each having biomedical electrodes at the end. ,introduced from Integrated Development Environment for
Sensor cable is 24 inches long dimension. One of the widely used in wiring projects and Programming languages
conductors is used for right arm, second for left arm and the Processing. It can execute on MAC OS, Windows as well as
third one is for right leg[16]. Linux based OS. It was developed for beginner level in field
of electronics. IDE include distinguishing feature like
searching-replacing text, cutting-pasting, highlighting the
syntax, , brace matching and automatic programs and
indenting can be uploaded and compiled to the Arduino board
by click procedure[15]. A toolbar for common functions and
text console message area also added to IDE’s features. Both
C and C++ languages can be used for generating programming
code in Arduino IDE and code written in IDE for Arduino
Fig.8. Sensor Cable called ‘sketch’.
2) Biomedical pads:
2) Node-RED
Biomedical pads are the disposable electrodes used to
Node –RED is fundamental, easily used and open
measure ECG, EMG and EEG of patient as shown in Fig.9.
source tool used in IOT technology. It’s a visual based
These pads as shown in figure 2.12 are circular in shape and
programming tool that ensure IoT developers to merge API’s ,
easily stuck with human body. Biomedical pads have
hardware and online services in an advanced and interested
dimension of 24mm × 1mm[16].
way. Run time of Node-RED consisting of node.js, which can
be executed at the end of a network in Hardware e.g. in the
cloud or Raspberry pi. Node-RED built-in library include
nodes and flows allows the users to establish communications
to all types of services and devices. Flows can be used by the
IoT developers to a lightweight runtime.

3) MQTT protocol
Fig.9. Biomedical Pads Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is
3) USB Wi-Fi Dongle lightweight, low bandwidth protocol for communicating
To access the sensors data by medical staff anywhere in different equipment and applications together particularly for
world we need to transfer data from raspberry pi using USB Machine to Machine(M2M) communication. MQTT base on
Wi-Fi dongle 802.11n as shown in Fig.10. This device using publish/subscribe architecture in comparison to HTTP
MIMO technique and with cutting edge of increase the speed protocol flows request/response architecture. It’s a client
and functioning of WLAN , enhancing its consistency and friendly by providing opportunity to communicate as a
range of transmissions. WIFI adapter have speed of 150Mbps subscriber, owner or both. This protocol makes the
and operate on 2.4GHz and can be switched to 5Ghz[17]. Its Connection of user to MQTT broker which entirely regulate
light weight 20g ,18*9mm in dimension ,using wireless reception and transmission of messages.
adapter with 13 channels
V. METHODOLOGY
Personal health monitoring systems must be portable hence
they need to be small, lightweight and low powered. The
system comprising of cheap-yet-serviceable, powerful Single
board minicomputer Raspberry Pi and small microcontroller
board Arduino [15]. Data sense by ECG and pulse sensors are
analog in nature and temperature sensor data is digital in
Fig.10. USB Wi-Fi Dongle nature .All the sensors data are fetched to Arduino UNO
through its analog and digital pins and then transferred to
B. Software Architecture Raspberry pi using USB cable which connects these two
It consists of MQTT protocol, Node-Red and Integrated devices. A 5-megapixel raspberry pi camera is used for video
Development Environment (IDE). purpose which is directly connected to raspberry pi. All the
sensors data consecutively being read by Raspberry pi after
1) Integrated Development Environment every two minutes and continuously record the video of
IDE plays a key role in Arduino hardware although it’s patient using pi camera. Raspberry pi 2 uploads the data
independent on any specific platform. Different programming (sensors data + Video + Chat) to the server through Wi-Fi
languages can be used to implement Arduino code or
dongle where data is being stored in its data base of server. VII. RESULTS
Data from server side is transferred to the Dynamic Webpage The web page can be seen in Fig.12. After providing all the
which is accessible to the doctor from anywhere using authentic information a doctor accessed the web page , where
internet. The doctor logs in to the website using a personalized on left side he can watch the patient live video and on the right
password from a remote location, where he can see the patient side he can communicate through text message bar provided
continuously and advice to the staff accordingly using chat on bottom right, to give real time feedback according to
and gestures. The doctor has no rights to change anything in patient’s health requirement.
the data; he acts as on observant and medical advisor.
Sensor data being received at dynamic web page is shown in
Table 1. All sensors data can be seen at different assigned
VI. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP columns with its respective report. Patient information and
Experimental setup for our system as shown in Fig.11 data timing is also mentioned in information and timing
consisting of sensors with its accessories like Biomedical pads columns. The data is received at dynamic web page after every
and sensors cable ,Raspberry pi camera, Arduino UNO, two minutes from server site. Hence all the patients’ health
Raspberry pi 2 and wi-fi dongle has been shown in figure. All record is stored; which can be used for diagnosing and better
the connections either between sensors and Arduino board or remote healthcare.
between raspberry pi and other devices (pi camera, wi-fi
dongle ,HDMI and power supply) can be clearly seen . VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The proposed system highlights the shortcomings in our
traditional healthcare system with the increasing aging
population and overcome it by giving affordable, secured, fast
and portable system by utilization technically sound
devices(Arduino, raspberry pi ,sensors) and systems(IoT,
Network topologies).
Although this system is good tool for remote patientcare, but
still future improvement can be made to make it more
efficient. Adding a video conversation between patient and
doctor can make the system more patient’s friendly.
GSM/GPRS module can be used to create message alert
whenever patient sensor data is approaching to abnormality.
Addition of more health-related sensor will make one’s life
more independent and convenient.

Fig.12. View of dynamic web page

Fig.11. Experimental Setup
 TABLE 1. SENSORS DATA WITH PATIENT INFORMATION

Health care Monitoring Data

Temperature Patient
Sl.No Pulse Heart rate ECG Reserved Other Timing
(°C) Information
July 19, 2016
1 30 OK 105 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
12:01:00 PM

July 19, 2016

2 31 OK 84 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
11:59:00 AM

July 19, 2016

3 31 OK 80 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
11:57:00 AM

July 19, 2016

4 31 OK 87 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
11:55:00 AM

July 19, 2016

5 31 OK 178 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
11:53:00 AM

July 19, 2016

6 31 OK 61 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
11:51:00 AM

July 19, 2016

7 31 OK 179 Normal 70 Present Shahzad
11:49:00 AM

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