=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2544/paper5
|storemode=property
|title=Remote Heartbeat Monitoring System for Cardiovascular Patients
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2544/paper5.pdf
|volume=Vol-2544
|authors=Toyeeb A. Musliudeen,Lukman A. Olawoyin,Abdulkarim A. Oloyede,Timothy K. Oyun,Nasir Faruk,Ibraheem Katibi
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/irehi/MusliudeenOOOFK18
}}
==Remote Heartbeat Monitoring System for Cardiovascular Patients==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2544/paper5.pdf
Remote Heartbeat Monitoring System for
Cardiovascular Patients
Toyeeb A. M usliudeen Abdulkarim A. Oloyede Nasir Faruk
Departmnet of Departmnet of Electronics, Univeristy Departmnet of
TelecommunicationScience University of York, UK TelecommunicationScience University
of Ilorin aao500@york.ac.uk of Ilorin
musliudeentoyeeb@gmail.com Faruk.n@unilorin.edu.ng
Timothy K. Oyun
Departmnet of Ibraheem Katibi
Lukman A. Olawoyin
Departmnet of TelecommunicationScience University Cardiology Unit, Department of
TelecommunicationScience University of Ilorin M edicine
of Ilorin University of Ilorin
iakatibi@unilorin.edu.ng
lolawoyin@unilorin.edu.ng
Abstract— The rise in Cardiovascular disease (CVD) cases the HR at rest is the number of occurrence of the beat of the
is alarming, as it’s become the world’s major disease heart in the sitting condition, when lying down or when the
contributing to almost 50% of noncommunicable disease. The nerve is calm. This is set within the range of 60 to 100 beats
need to have real time access of the patient’s heart condition per minute (b m) [3]. However, the HR of an athlete and an
(heartbeat) is necessary in proper management and treatment active adult is slower than that of a resting or stationary
of CVDs. However, the lack of manpower and adequate person [4]. The normal HR for a baby (less than one year of
funding hinder the deployment of heart beat monitors in
age) is higher and this is expected to be around 120 to 160
considerable number of hospitals in developing countries. In
bpm and that of an healthy child is expected to be around 75
this paper, we present design and implementation of energy
to 110 bpm [5].
efficient and cost-effective remote heartbeat monitoring
system. The implementation consists of pulse sensor, Arduino Over the years, there have been different methods of
UNO, HC-05 Bluetooth module and 9v battery. The measuring heartbeat. However as technology advances, the
ATMega328 microprocessor of the Arduino is programmed in methods involved is also advancing. The conventional
C language with the use of the library function "Pulse Sensor manual method of taking the heart pulse has advanced into
Playground" of the Arduino, while the end terminal electronic methods [6]. Two of the most common types of
application is programmed with java via processing. A front the electronic methods are the electrical method
end application was developed and used to display the pulse
(electrocardiography) and the optical method (photo
data. The de vice constructed operates smoothly, based on the
sampled BPM data collected from 5 adults. The design is quite plethysmography). The electrical method uses the voltage
efficient as it successfully connects the pulse sensor remotely to extracted fro m placing a strap of electrode pads on the body,
the frontend application. It also relays the BPM value to the while that of the optical method uses light as its source of
terminal device in real time. data [7]. The optical method of the pulse sensor involves the
process of placing the fingertip between the infrared
Keywords—heartbeat monitor, Cardiovascular, energy transmitter and a photodiode sensor. As blood flows through
efficiency Arduino, Bluetooth the vein, it absorbs the infrared light which is in turn
captured by the photodiode sensor. Afterwards, the intensity
of the reflected light captured by the photodiode sensor
I. INT RODUCTION (LDR) y ields the blood pulse value [8]. The pulse value is
Card iovascular disease (CVD) is a condition involving the then further displayed via a display terminal for access by a
blood vessels, either narrowing or co mplete blockage of the cardiologist or medical practitioner.
blood vessels, resulting to heart attack. So me examp les of The need to have real time access of the patient’s heart
this disease include the heart failure, heart attack, coronary condition (heart beat) is necessary in proper management and
artery diseases, stroke and many others [1]. treatment of CVD. Heart beat monitoring systems is
commonly used to measure the heartbeat of patients.
The global rise in CVDs cases has become the topic issue However, lack of manpower and adequate funding hinder the
and burden as its currently the world’s major disease deployment of the devices in considerable number of
contributing to almost 50% of non-commun icable disease hospitals in developing countries. Moreover, power supply
[2]. This has surpasses the communicable d iseases. The is another big issue to sustain the running of these devices
global death as the result of CVDs currently stood at 17.3 within the time span needed to monitor patients with CVDs.
million deaths per year, th is number however, is expected to Furthermore, the economic pressure and realities has pushed
grow even higher by the year 2030 [2]. most of the healthcare industries to seek for new and cost
effective paradigms that could provide health care service to
Hence, detecting this disease is essential and one of early people. Therefore in this paper, a user friendly, portable, cost
step is to examine for irregular heartbeat pattern in a patient. and energy efficient heart beat monitoring system that could
The rate at which the heart beats could be used as a basis for be used to remotely (via wireless medium), access the beat
detecting the condition of the heart of a patient. The heartrate rates or HR of patients with CVD is developed. The device
(HR) varies in accordance to the age, activity and the allows for remote monitoring of a patient which is often
condition of a person. The HR for a healthy adult, defined as required as the doctor to patent ratio in Africa can be as low
Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
IREHI 2018 : 2nd IEEE International Rural and Elderly Health Informatics Conference
as 1:50000 [9].The device also provide a short range wireless allow free mobility of the patient while his / her health
technology for sending the captured HR to a remote terminal. parameters being monitored. A wireless sensor is to be used
The remote terminal would be able to display the HR of in monitoring the health parameters such as the HR, and
different patients from time to time. connectivity is made to mobile application via bluetooth.
In [19], the authors proposed a system for people in rural
II. RELAT ED WORKS areas due to their inaccessibility to doctors and other medical
There are two major types of devices used in monitoring practitioners that would monitor their health parameters
the heartrate. These include the electrical methods which (such as the heart rate). It was as well proposed in [19], a bi-
requires placing a large strap of device on the body while the analysis hierarchical method. The first layer been an
optical method doesn’t require anything of such and can be integration with android phone that stores data at SQLite,
effectively used as compared to the electrical method [10]. analyzes the data and then send a text based emergency short
The development of low cost heart rate measuring device can message to the health practitioners. After receiving the
be achieved through the use of optical technology where message, the medical practitioner then analyzes the data
LDR and LED are used in sensing the pulses [11]. The received.
amplifier circuit amplifies the pulse signal, and then filters it
through a band pass filter. The microcontroller receives the III. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
amplified and filtered pulse signal, and then process es the
The components used in carrying out the full
analog signal. Afterwards, it then counts the HR and displays
it on the LCD display [12], [13]. implementation of this work are presented. The components
can be sub-divided into two: Hard ware co mponents (Pulse
In [14], optical technology was employed to design a sensor, Arduino UNO and Bluetooth module) and Software
microcontroller-based HR monitor via fingertip sensor was components (Arduino IDE (Integrated development
presented. Optical technology was employed by the device in Environ ment) and Processing).
detecting blood that flows through the fingers, and in the
process offers great advantage of handiness, usability and A. Pulse Sensor
portability over the tape-based recording system. The This is an Arduino based plug-and-play sensor for taking
Discrete Fourier Transform was applied in analyzing the
the rate at which the heart beats. It is majorly used by
electrocardiography (ECG) signals in order to derive the HR developers, athletes, students, for easy incorporation of real
measurement. In the research work, the performance of the
time data of the amplifier and noise cancellation circuits
HR monitoring device was taken in co mparison with the which aid its ability to produce a reliable pulse reading easily
ECG signal represented on an oscilloscope and the manual and quickly [20] [21]. A picture of the front and back view of
pulse measurement of the heartbeat. this device is shown in figure 1.
In [15], a co mpliance tracking mechanism (called CHF
Tel-Assurance) was imp lemented [15]. Patients were
monitored with the aid of technology and were reviewed on a
weekly basis by a mu ltidisciplinary team. So me of the team
members fro m the cardiac rehabilitation telemetry, and home
care research units. The goals of the team were to make
provision for an improved patient result, hospitalization, and
readmission rates. The core approach was to allow patients to
be the co-handler of how their heart system behaves via user
education on usable technology.
The core approach In [16] was to allow patients to be
the co-handler of how their heart system behaves via user Fig 1. Front view and back view diagram of a pulse sensor [27]
education on usable technology. In this article, seventy-four
(74) heart failure patients were enrolled in the ECG
B. Arduino UNO
monitoring and telephone follow-up program. In response,
patients are capable of sending their respective ECG data The Arduino UNO is an ATmega328P integrated circuit
fro m their mobile telephone to a remote receiving terminal open source microcontroller board. It has seven power pin,
where the data could be accessed by a heart care and Eighteen (18) input / output digital pins of which Twelve
professional. The patients were evaluated and responded to, (12) are dedicated to digital PMW and Six (6) analogue
based on the ECG data that the patient must have sent to the input. It also has a reset button, USB connector, and a power
remote consultant. jack as shown in Fig 2. The components that make up the
controller are designed in such a way to perform the
Bodmas et al [17] tried to establish the feasibility and functions of a microcontroller., All that is needed is to
potency of remote monitoring and management of the connect it to a power source (such as a 3V or 5V battery or to
chronic heart failure. Patients were assessed by tele- computer via USB cable) to start the device. The Arduino
monitoring for HR, blood pressure, weight and arterial UNO has been embedded with an inbuilt boot loader to
saturation of oxygen. Patient's satisfaction, safety and quality upload a new program to the board of the Arduino. However,
of life based on the implementation of these approaches were the boot loader can be bypassed thereby controlling the
evaluated for humanistic outcome. microcontroller with the use of the In-Circuit Signal
Also, According to S.A Moraru, Szakacs, and L. perniu Programming (ICSP) header [22, 23]
in [18], the proposition of the authors was based on having a
device that is wearable on the patient’s body which will
Fig 2 Arduino UNO with ATmega328p Microprocessor [28]
C. Bluetooth Module (HC-05)
Bluetooth module was used to interface with an Arduino Fig 4. Arduino IDE
board in order to transmit the data fro m the Arduino board to
a Bluetooth-enabled terminal such as a PC [24]. The
Bluetooth module used in this work is Bluetooth module
HC-05 which can either be set to master or slave. The E. Processing
module has Seven (7) p ins, namely; KEY, VCC, GND, Processing is an open source developing agent tool for
TXD, RXD and STATE as shown in figure 3. These are writing an application program which in turn can be used in
ONLY Six pins and not Seven. Among all the just mentioned the same or other computer [26]. Its usefulness in this project
pins, the needed ones for this project are; the VCC which the is when the computer is needed to communicate with the
voltage source from the Arduino is connected to, the GND Arduino. In this project, the processing software is used to
that is connected to the Arduino ground pin, the RXD that program java based computer application, named remote
receives data fro m the Arduino transmitting serial, and the heart rate monitor, to display the reading and pulse wave of
TXD which transmits the received serial data from the the sensor on the computer. What it does is that it creates an
Arduino to the end terminal [25]. environment that accepts data fro m the Arduino via the
Bluetooth module and displays it on the application created
fro m this processing environment.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULT S
This work is implemented using cost effective and energy
efficient method. The schematic design used for the
implementation of the wo rk is shown in fig. 5 while the
flow chart is shown in figure 6. The simplicity of the
method can be seen from the flo w and block d iagram.
Patients Sensing Arduino Remote Pulse
and Uno Monitor
Readin +Bluetooth Te rminal
g module
Fig 3. Fromt and Back view of HC-05 Bluetooth module [29]
D. Arduino IDE Fig 5: Block Diagram of Design
The Arduino integrated development environment is an
environment in which an Arduino board can be The project was first imp lemented using a breadboard to be
programmed. A written program or code is called able to determine any problem with any of the co mponents
SKETCH [23]. In this work, the Arduino IDE is used as and while putting the components together.
an environment in which the Arduino UNO program is As shown in figure 8, a set of LEDs are connected on the
written, compiled and uploaded on the Arduino board as circuit board. A resistor of 200Ω is used in regulating the
depicted in figure 4. input voltage of the LED to prevent it fro m burning because
of high input voltage to the LED.
Furthermore, the schematic b lock d iagram is also shown in
figure 7. It can be seen from this diagram that the patient’s
pulse rate is measured, analyzed and then wirelessly relayed
to a distance-dependent remote terminal.
The value of the resister was determined using the
equation below
1.0
Where;
R is the value of the unknown resistor
Vs is the supply voltage power used in powering the
circuit in our case the value is as this is the output
voltage from the Arduino
Vf is the forward voltage required to power the LED in
our case the value is
If is the forward current required for the LED to operate
and in our case, this is
The work was imp lemented by connecting the anode
(+ve part) of the LED to the Arduino PIN while the cathode
(-ve part) is grounded on the circuit board. The female pin
connector is also attached to the circuit board wh ich contains
the ground port, voltage port, analog port and Bluetooth
module port. The prototype produced is as shown in Fig 9
below with a s mall electrical junction box wh ich contains all
the components (Arduino UNO, circu it board and a 9V DC
battery). To test the device, there is need to ensure that the
Fig 6: Flow chat for Implementation Bluetooth module HC-05 is paired with the end terminal.
The module must then be attached to a specific computer
port on the end terminal device as shown in Figure 10 below;
After attaching a port to the HC-05 Bluetooth module,
the HRM application can then be launched as shown in Fig
11.
Fig 7: Block diagram of the remote heart rate monitoring system.
Fig 9: Prototype remote Heartrate Monitor System
It can be seen at Fig 10 that once the application is
launched, all available ports on the terminal device are
shown. Once the appropriate computer port is selected, the
pulse data will be received on the selected port. On the
terminal device where this project is implemented, the HC-
Fig 8 Project implementation on Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
05 Bluetooth module was attached to computer port 21 for
the recipient of the pulse data in real time as shown in Fig 12
and 13.
Fig13: Pulse sensor taken for one person
The terminal application displays the pulse rate in bit per
minute (BPM ) and the pattern of individual heartbeat.
Fig 10: Port allocation to HC-05 Bluetooth module
Fig 14. Average BPM
TABLE 1: HEART RATE VARIABILITY OF 5 PATIENT; BEFORE,
DURING AND AFTER EXERCISE
Fig 11: Port selection on the terminal device
Patient before Excersie During Excersie After Excersie
ID (BPM ) (BPM ) (BPM )
1 2 Avg 1 2 Avg 1 2 Avg
Patient 1 72 74 73 94 108 101 67 64 66
Patient 2 69 64 67 80 98 89 62 58 60
Patient 3 74 77 76 100 105 103 58 54 56
Patient 4 65 66 66 95 105 100 60 55 58
Patient 5 80 89 85 98 108 103 63 66 65
The HR monitor device successfully connects remotely
to the front-end computer-based application via a short-range
Bluetooth connection. The front-end application displays the
BPM value of the individual that has the pulse sensor placed
on his or her body, majorly on the index finger. It was
observed that the front-end application displays high BPM
value, usually above 150, on startup. Accurate BPM is
recorded when the monitored individual is fully settled and
Fig 12: Pu lse sensor taken for two people calm for some minutes. Furthermore, when the accurate
BPM value is displayed, just as that in the Figure Fig what,
the value mostly varies with difference of five. That is, when
the displayed BPM value is 83, it might keep showing values
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