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As health services prepare to shift from dealing primarily with acute health problems to enabling the more effective control of chronic conditions, the ability to harness non-intrusive, proactive health-care monitoring and 24/7 diagnostic capabilities at an acceptable cost is becoming priority.
Intelligent wireless body monitoring systems offer the potential to deliver greatly improved health-care outcomes. They are capable of providing a platform for health-care analysis and decision-making based on real-time data at a dramatically reduced cost. Important manufacturing challenges are being addressed and a new generation of low cost, disposable and lifestyle-compatible body monitoring solutions are now possible. Recently developed proprietary silicon chip technology is bringing together analogue and digital processing to provide system-on-chip wireless monitoring solutions and enable a new wave of personalised care services, including “at risk,” postoperative and home monitoring.
The methodology
This new technology paradigm exploits the physics of silicon to produce nanopower analogue computing elements, while using digital elements to dynamically reconfigure, control, monitor and calibrate functional analogue processing blocks on a chip.
This “best of both worlds” methodology achieves ultra-low power levels and delivers the real-time processing required for continuous health-care and human monitoring applications, while maintaining necessary system accuracy. The result is highly portable devices that are capable of operating for weeks or months on a single battery; systems can even be attached to a disposable ”digital plaster” using an ultra-thin, two-dimensional “paper” battery.
These savings in power and silicon area are achieved through the implementation of computationally intensive algorithms, using efficient lower power analogue semiconductor processors based on analogue subroutines. Selected signal processing algorithms are executed using low-power analogue hardware rather than digital hardware or software-based subroutines. Meanwhile, on-chip digital closed-loop control supports features such as self-calibration and re-tuning (giving compensation for factors such as environ-mental change or ageing to be implemented) and provides digital control for the reconfiguration of analogue sections.
Realise the potential
Intelligent, continuous body monitoring has the potential to revolutionise the architecture of health-care information systems and medical diagnostic practices. Built on this new enabling technology, an ultra-low power wireless sensor platform can be configured with appropriate sensors to detect body temperature, motion, mobility and electrocardiogram and, with new sensor technology, vital signs such as blood oxygen and glucose. Problem event data such as irregularities in heartbeat can be sent to a PC, mobile phone or personal digital assistant via an ultra-low power, short-range radio telemetry link. This provides connection to various base stations monitoring multiple physiological signals on behalf of the health-care provider. In the future, intelligent sensor interface platforms could be used to control drug delivery and maintain important parameters such as blood pressure within an optimum range.
Bringing the economies of scale of the semiconductor industry to health-care opens the way to unprecedented cost reductions, freedom and flexibility. Adoption of these technologies could well lead to the emergence of new service providers contracted to deliver patient information and monitoring services to health-care professionals. It may also support the anticipated emergence of “expert patients” who, with the reduced availability of professional carer resources, increasingly will play a role in the care management of themselves.
Keith Errey is Chief Operating Officer, Toumaz Technology Limited, Suite F Centurion Court, 85 Milton Park, Abingdon OX14 4RY, UK, tel. +44 1235 438950, e-mail: keith.errey@toumaz.com, www.toumaz.com
