Wearable Computing for Medical Applications

By Michael Lawo and Otthein Herzog

NOTE: This is an overview of the article, which was presented at the CEWIT 2011 Conference. (CEWIT 2011 Conference papers are available here).
Click here to read the entire article.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurological condition. It results from degeneration of dopamine producing neurons. This paper is on research partially funded by the European Commission (AAL programme and ICT FP7) where project consortia go towards the development of a personal health system with a closed loop of detection, response and treatment capabilities for patients with chronic diseases especially those with PD. Wearable computing can be a powerful technology to deal with the demographic change associated with an aging population. The technology might allow people to longer stay in their homes and to enjoy life in an independent way.

The authors present three projects that contribute toward practical wearable computing especially focused on patients with chronic or progressive conditions. These projects are wearIT@work, CHRONIOUS, and HELP-AAL. Following the presentation of these projects, they reflect on insights gained thereby.

WearIT@work

From the wearIT@work web site, the prospectus of the project is stated as: “(The) wearIT@work project will develop a set of new solutions to support the workers of the future. These solutions are based on wearable computing technology and their effectiveness and applicability will be tested on four different pilot studies in the fields of Healthcare, Emergency Rescue, Aircraft Maintenance and Production Management and Training.”

The healthcare aspect of the project is of interest here. A variety of sensors are utilized to provide “context information” about the patient’s current situation. Energy efficiency is obviously an important consideration. An open hardware platform, open software framework, and business models that have been developed are discussed in the article.

CHRONIOUS

Using the findings of wearIT@work, the CHRONIOUS project focused on developing wearable computing for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and Renal Insufficiency. The requirements of both patients (those wearing the systems) and caregivers (those using the system to remotely monitor the patients’ health conditions) were considered in the project.

The project included not only the patient’s wearable computing, but also external devices (to register body weight, for instance), communications provisions, and downstream processing to assist clinicians in assessing and responding to patient conditions.

Handling an Alert (CHRONIOUS)
Handling an Alert (CHRONIOUS)

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Help-AAL

Help-AAL is a wearable computing solution for patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The authors outline the growing public health problem posed by caring for people with PD. They cite an estimated worldwide economic impact of 20 billion euros per year, including the economic effects of productivity loss and the cost of all forms of care. And the problem is growing, as the population of most countries continues to age.

The HELP system (“Home-based Empowered Living for Parkinson’s disease patients”) is made up of a wearable subcutaneous pump, an intraoral cartridge inserted in patients’ mouth, a wearable movement sensor, blood pressure device and a control system that is constantly sending data, checking the patient and calculating the right quantity of drug to be supplied.

HELP Architecture
HELP Architecture

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The system will be tested in pilot projects in Israel, Italy, and Spain. The authors cite challenges to meet in this research: (1) the identification of motor status in real time, (2) the development of a gait guidance system, (3) a user interface to collect direct feedback from the patient, and (4) a server to allow interaction with the doctor in charge and track the evolution of the patient’s condition.

Lessons Learnt

The authors point out the tradeoff of potential benefits of wearable computing solutions, and well as challenges introduced regarding ergonomics, health, safety and privacy. They also discuss the importance of continually involving the end users in the design, testing, and evaluation of a system like wearable computing.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michael Lawo, neusta mobile solutions GmbH, Bremen, Germany is reachable at m.lawo@neusta.de.

Otthein Herzog, TZI Center for computations and communications technology, Universitat Bremen, Bremen, Germany, is reachable at herzog@tzi.de.