Abstract
Sensor systems for home vital signs monitoring are mainly focused on discrete point measurements (weight, blood glucose, short period ECG trace), during which time the patient is constrained to be at rest next to the monitoring station. However, several user groups would benefit from continuous remote monitoring that ensures their freedom of movement. Temporary continuous monitoring can provide better safety of patients discharged from day care surgery procedures and allows more efficient medication adjustments,. Permanent monitoring is an alternative for patients with serious cardio-vascular diseases that otherwise would have been trapped in a hospital bed. Similarly, soldiers or workers in hostile/harsh environments can benefit from vital signs monitoring in assurance that injuries will cause alerts and a prompt rescue. Vital signs monitoring is challenging in several respects, for example obtaining reliable sensor data and interpretation models for the data, achieving user acceptance and ease-of-use, and integration the existing health care system and care processes. We report on work carried out to do continuous remote monitoring of vital signs . Parts of the work have been carried out within the US-Norway Medicom telemedicine research program, in which also a soldier vital signs monitoring demonstrator system has been developed. This system allows live monitoring of a user’s heart rate, respiration rate, body posture, activity, temperature and pulse oximetry, and transmission of data to an internet-accessible data storage using cell phone technology. In addition, we report on work to implement increased use of wireless monitoring systems in the Norwegian civilian health care sector.