The demand of healthcare systems for chronically ill patients and elderly has increased in the last few years. This demand is derived by the necessity to allow patients and elderly to be independent in their homes without the help of their relatives or caregivers. The prosperity of the information technology plays an essential role in healthcare by providing continuous monitoring and alerting mechanisms. In this paper, we survey the most recent applications in healthcare monitoring. We organize the applications into categories and present their common architecture. Moreover, we explain the standards used and challenges faced in this field. Finally, we make a comparison between the presented applications and discuss the possible future research paths.
Keywords: Elderly care; Healthcare monitoring; Pervasive healthcare; Smart sensors; Wireless sensor network.