The health-monitoring bracelet that Pramuka Sooriyapatabandige designed can measure very important indicators resembling coronary heart price, pores and skin temperature, blood stress, and blood oxygen saturation. What’s extra, the machine must be cheap to fabricate and may very well be made in his native nation of Sri Lanka, the place entry to well being care may be tough. The bracelet not too long ago gained first place within the IEEE Telehealth Virtual Pitch Competition pupil class.
The IEEE pupil member says he was impressed to develop the multipurpose health-monitoring bracelet (MHMB) as a result of noncommunicable, continual illnesses resembling most cancers and coronary heart illness account for 70 p.c of deaths worldwide, and greater than three-quarters of them happen in growing nations together with Sri Lanka. The South Asian nation is within the midst of an financial disaster, and its well being care system is struggling, based on a U.N. report.
“When I started this research project, I did not have a clear idea of the problems with health care,” says Sooriyapatabandige, who earned a bachelor’s diploma in electrical and electronics engineering this yr from the University of Jaffna, in Thirunelvely, Sri Lanka. “After participating in the competition, I got access to so much material on remote health monitoring. I got to see how much work is being carried out, the types of research going on, and the trends. Developing countries barely make use of any of this information, and I think there’s a lot we can do in this field.”
The benefits of a distant system
People with continual circumstances resembling coronary heart illness and most cancers have their very important indicators checked commonly. But scheduling an examination with a physician may be difficult, particularly for individuals residing in growing nations and different areas the place there’s a scarcity of well being care professionals. Appointments may be tough to get, and journey to a medical facility can take a very long time. One resolution is to make use of telemedicine to observe sufferers remotely.
Clinics make up the spine of Sri Lanka’s well being care system. To keep away from overcrowding, individuals could go to a clinic solely on the day they’ve been assigned, Sooriyapatabandige says. If monitoring very important indicators may very well be carried out remotely, he says, it might scale back the variety of individuals on the amenities and liberate the medical workers to deal with these with extra critical circumstances.
“Strengthening primary health care with a comprehensive, community-based, and family-focused technology solution could be the key for addressing the existing health issues in Sri Lanka,” he says. “Home-based monitoring of essential health parameters is important, and current technologies can address the need.”
A cloud-based system that collects real-time information
The prototype of the multipurpose health-monitoring bracelet (MHMB) consists of sensors to measure very important indicators and makes use of photoplethysmography to measure coronary heart price. Pramuka Sooriyapatabandige
The MHMB is designed to be a part of a centralized, distant monitoring system. The battery-powered wearable consists of sensors to measure very important indicators. It makes use of photoplethysmography to measure coronary heart price and consists of the potential to acquire single-lead measurements. The bracelet doesn’t have a show and requires solely minimal consideration from the person.
It value about US $100 to develop the prototype, Sooriyapatabandige says.
The wearable connects to the cloud by way of Wi-Fi. Medical workers can entry the affected person’s information from the monitoring system or from an app. Patients can obtain the app on their telephone to view the historical past of their readings.
“Home-based monitoring of essential health parameters is important, and current technologies can address the need.”
The bracelet additionally may be related to blood stress screens, glucometers, and different medical units. Sooriyapatabandige says that as a result of the MHMB can hook up with the instruments, the bracelet’s capabilities should not restricted to solely the measurements that may be made on the wrist. It additionally makes the bracelet a central node, or hub, for the distant patient-monitoring system, which supplies connectivity so different units can entry the platform.
The skill to hyperlink to the opposite instruments will not be provided by every other such wearable, Sooriyapatabandige says.
The system can be utilized in mass-casualty situations, he says, resembling checking pure catastrophe victims’ vitals, in addition to different conditions through which there are vital challenges in scaling up medical providers.
Clinical trials and a potential patent
Sooriyapatabandige didn’t develop the MHMB on his personal. He labored on the design with classmate Nilojkanth Loganathan and the challenge’s supervisor, Ragupathyraj Valluvan, a lecturer in electrical and digital engineering on the University of Jaffna. Sooriyapatabandige additionally had help from Rajendra Surenthirakumaran , dean of the college’s drugs college, and Sivasothy Shanmugalingam, founding father of DotsHook, a telecommunications firm in Brittany, France.
Sooriyapatabandige and the group are actually growing a model of the bracelet for medical trials. The college is submitting a patent utility with the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka.
Sooriyapatabandige says he plans to proceed working within the biomedical discipline. He is trying into Ph.D. applications in embedded programs growth, primarily these associated to biomedical purposes.
Looking for improvements in telehealth
The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) held the pitch competitors this yr to hunt out telehealth improvements. The contest was overseen by the IEEE SA Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice and the IEEE SA Transforming the Telehealth Paradigm Industry Connections program.
Entries needed to be inexpensive and straightforward to make use of, they usually needed to shield customers’ privateness. They additionally wanted to make use of cheap supplies, be scalable, function with different medical purposes, and adjust to regional regulatory insurance policies. Submissions got here from greater than 106 nations.
After successful the competitors, Sooriyapatabandige is ready to work with a neighborhood IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology to check the prototype.
He was a visitor speaker in Season 4’s third episode of theIEEE Re-Think Health podcast. In addition, he offered his challenge on the IEEE Standards Association’s Transforming the Telehealth Paradigm occasion.
“New and improved methods, such as remote patient monitoring, bring about numerous advantages and benefits,” he says. “In order to ensure that most of the world gets to enjoy these benefits, it is essential to encourage more people and organizations to get involved in these initiatives. Our project and the IEEE SA Telehealth competition are both focused on achieving the most out of these technologies as early as possible and making them available to everyone everywhere.”
The advantages of IEEE membership
Sooriyapatabandige joined IEEE in 2018. He served as secretary of his college’s IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s pupil chapter. He organized a number of occasions and collaborated with different IEEE societies.
Those alternatives, he says, helped him improve his management and organizational expertise: “I got to experience aspects of the different IEEE societies and then identify what was best for me and where my passion lies. IEEE also gave me numerous opportunities, including this competition, to enhance my knowledge and skills as well as to network with professionals and experts.”