Wireless Heart Rate Monitoring System

Abstract

This paper presents the realization of a remote heart rate monitoring system for continuous long-time patient monitoring from one location as a part of diagnostic procedure. Heart rate, one of the most important physiological parameters to human body, is closely related to the function and status of the human heart. For a patient whom already diagnosed with fatal heart disease, their heart rate condition has to be monitored continuously. The proposed system consists of microcontroller based heart rate measurement device that uses IR sensor to measure the alteration in blood volume at fingertip with each heart beat. Data obtained in form of pulses will be processed using PIC16F877A microcontroller, and then transmitted securely to a centralized PC station using an Xbee wireless system for display, storage and analysis purposes. Besides, the heart rate is also displayed on LCD at the measurement device unit to allow the patient to monitor their condition by themselves. As soon as the heart rate presents an abnormal status, an alert notification will be sent to the centralized monitoring unit. This will enable doctors and nurses to provide medical assistance to the patient in short time or to take immediate treatment measures in case of emergency.