Session PC2.5

SMS-Based Platform for Cardiovascular Tele-Monitoring

M Triventi, E Mattei, F Censi, G Calcagnini*, F Mastrantonio,
D Giansanti, G Maccioni, V Macellari, P Bartolini

Italian National Institute of Health
Roma, Italy

Introduction: The technology of the medical devices provides widely accepted self-measurement methods for various parameters of interest in both chronic/post acute cardiovascular patients. However elderly people have usually limited skills and may have major troubles in using of the modern information and communication technology tools available for the transmission of the data. In addition, Internet resource may not be available at their home. If the data to be transmitted do not require particular bandwidth or transfer rate, the Short Message Service (SMS) of the GSM service can be a convenient, reliable, affordable, and secure mean of telemedicine. Aim of this paper is to develop a fully automatic platform to transmit medical data collected at home from automatic devices using the SMS service.
Methods: The overall platform integrates commercial devices for measuring blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose and a new wearable system for the step counting into one single patient unit, equipped with a GSM module. The meters are interrogated by the transmission module (Home Transmitting Unit, HTU) overnight and the new measurements, if any, packed into a short message and sent to a receiving server (Central Receiving Unit, CRU) via the GSM network. The CRU, located at the reference centre, is connected to a remote database via Internet, so that the data can be uploaded into the database. Database functionality are provided by the NetCare software that allows decentralized tests to be carried-out by non specialised personnel under the supervision and remote control of laboratory staff. This solution extends the Point Of Care Testing (POCT) approach, already used in clinical laboratory tests, to cardiovascular measures.
Results and Discussion: A prototype of the proposed platform has been realized and tested. The HTU integrates the commercial meters selected, and the physical activity monitor. The overall dimension of the HTU were 21x27x6 cm. The total part costs of each HTU did not exceed 300 EUR. During both laboratory and field testing, all the three meters were successfully interrogated and the data were correctly encoded, transmitted via SMS and uploaded into the database. To date 20 HTU are used to monitor blood pressure, heart frequency, blood glucose and physical activity in chronic/post acute cardiovascular patients.

(Abstract Control Number: 337)