A New Prototype of Smart Wearable Monitoring System Solution for Alzheimer's Patients

Bassam Al-Naami; Hamza Abu Owida; Mohammed Abu Mallouh; Feras Al-Naimat; Moh'd Agha; Abdel-Razzak Al-Hinnawi

doi:10.2147/MDER.S339855

A New Prototype of Smart Wearable Monitoring System Solution for Alzheimer's Patients

Med Devices (Auckl). 2021 Dec 2:14:423-433. doi: 10.2147/MDER.S339855. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Bassam Al-Naami¹, Hamza Abu Owida², Mohammed Abu Mallouh³, Feras Al-Naimat², Moh'd Agha², Abdel-Razzak Al-Hinnawi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
² Department of Medical Engineering, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan.
³ Department of Mechatronics Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
⁴ Faculty of Sciences, Al-Isra University, Amman, Jordan.

Abstract

Purpose: The daily life management of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) constitutes a significant and rapidly expanding health-care responsibility. In this study, an innovative prototype of a wireless-sensing smart wearable medical device (SWMD) is proposed as a multi-functions solution for Alzheimer patients. The SWMD is aimed to assemble three main biomedical engineering advances: 1) use of a Wi-Fi microcontroller, 2) simultaneous monitoring of a set of vital biomarkers, and 3) cautions of fall down conditions, in addition to GPS location indicator.

Methods: The SWMD employs a Wi-Fi controller that is incorporated with electronic circuits to monitor three vital signals (temperature, heart rate, and oxygen saturation), fall down conditions in three directions (X, Y, and Z axis), and GPS location. The SWMD was connected to the Firebase Service (database hosted on the Internet Cloud). The proposed device was tested on 13 normal volunteers. The left side, right side, forward, and backward fall down conditions were assessed. The prototype's functions during daily activity such as rising hand, sitting down or standing up, and walking conditions were also assessed.

Results: The three assembled functions were all successfully incorporated to build the SWDM device as a suggested solution offering real-time alerts during daily activity to AD patients. The Bland-Altman statistical test showed no significant difference (p-value >0.05) between the SWMD biomarkers' acquisition and the reference methods. The gyro/accelerator sensor yielded 93% sensitivity in fall down detection and 95% specificity during daily activities. The GPS yielded correct positioning of the SWDM holder, while the internet cloud allowed saving and managing all vital biomarkers daily.

Conclusion: The SWMD is a possible solution for daily life support for AD patients. It incorporates three functions in one single device, GPS location indicator, monitoring set of biomarkers, and fall down alert, which are all controlled via a Wi-Fi micro controller on-line connected to Internet Cloud. It successfully would allow the management of the daily records as well as the real-time alerts to remote persons.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Internet Cloud access; Wi-Fi micro controller; fall down alert; health care aids; smart wearable medical device.

Grants and funding

The authors did not receive any financial support to conduct this research.