Wireless Wrist Electrocardiogram with Remotely

Activated Pacemaker and Real-time Monitoring

System Online using Sensors, Electrodes and
Raspberry Pi

By:
Aala, Mark Jayson M.
Bocalbos, Weiland S.
Cocson, LeixTheus C.
Espiritu, Nikko M.

A Thesis / Practicum or Research Report Submitted to the School

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Electronics and Communications Engineering

Mapa Institute of Technology

October 2014

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Heart attack is one of the top causes of death among Filipinos, Department of Health
Undersecretary TeodoroHerbosa said. Heart disease accounted for33% of all deaths for Filipino
Americanscompared to 19% for Vietnamese, 24% for Koreans, 28% for Japanese, and 29% for Chinese
(Ryan et al., 2000). Heart attack happens due to the narrowing of coronary artery, which blocks oxygen to
go to the heart. There are lots of heart diseases that might lead to heart attack like myocardial infarction,
coronary artery disease and cardiac murmurs. Moreover, heart attacks happen also due to high blood
pressure and diabetes. Heart attack is unpredictable and really damaging once happened. As such, there is
a need to monitor the heart activity of these people with such diseases oftentimes. It is very important to
have techniques and services for the hearts accurate diagnosis. An electrocardiogram gathers electrical
impulses generated by the polarization and depolarization of cardiac tissue and translates into a
waveform. The resulting waveform determines the rate and regularity of the heartbeats, the presence of
any damage to the heart, the size and position of the chambers, and the effects of drugs or devices used to
regulate the heart, such as a pacemaker. The pacemaker stabilizes and regulates the heart beat by
submitting electrical pulses to contract heart muscles. This is actually used when abnormality of the heart
beat arises. There were electrocardiograms and pacemakers at the hospitals but each session costs about
400 pesos and of course, still needs to travel in cases of the people in isolated and remote areas. Based
from the salary survey in the Philippines, an average wage earner has a salary of approximately 500 pesos
a day. So,400 pesos is costly for an average worker in the Philippines. As a result, the activity and status
of the heart is not always get monitored.
A handy and portable electrocardiogram using the technologies emerging today is on the process
of research. Making an electrocardiogram wireless is their objective which are now already studied. From
a wired systems, it now became a wireless system until telemedicine systems emerged. Recently, many
telemedicine systems were developed by integrated with communication technology to enable people to

monitor their cardiac health from anywhere at any time. Rasid and Woodward designed a Bluetooth
telemedicine processor to acquire and upload physiological information to a medical healthcare institute
via general packet radio service (GPRS) mobile network. Those ideas was merged and modified and Bin
Yu et. al. in their Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Based Mobile Electrocardiogram Monitoring
Systemmade use of Bluetooth to connect the electrocardiogram module on a smartphone. In their paper,
monitoring system is able to acquire ECG signals through 2-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor,
transmit the ECG data via the Bluetooth wireless link, process and display the ECG waveform in a
smartphone. Another study is the Development of a Wearable Mobile Electrocardiogram Monitoring
System by Using Novel Dry Foam Electrodes by Tseng et. al. which covers the use of the GSM cellular
network for transmission and dry foam electrodes on data gathering.
The telemedicine systems focuses on how the data is transmitted to other devices or system. The
need for the comfort for those people who will use the device must also be considered. It must be made as
a portable, not bulky and very comfortable to wear or use. Making it as a form accessory must be studied.
Another, easy usage must be considered so that it will fit to all ages. As far as communication is
concerned, the distance, availability and accessibility is limited. Today, as the internet is being so popular,
the usage of it is the best idea, a real-time monitoring at the internet. It would be always available and
accessible by people who really need to know the status of a specific persons heart. Medication and tips
by the doctor is much easier and can be done at home. So, time of both parties are utilized better and yet
medication is done easily. A pacemaker can also be added in case of emergency. It is good in some cases
wherein access to medical services is not available, for example, in isolated and remote regions where
there are no medical specialists. In other cases, the response to emergencies is not fast enough either.
The purpose of this research is to make a wireless wrist electrocardiogram with remotely
activated pacemaker and real-time monitoring system online using sensors, electrodes and raspberry pi.
This research aims to provide a real-time monitoring of the hearts status both online. It is to provide
availability of the data through the internet anytime, anywhere. Also, this research aims to lessen heart

attacks through real-time monitoring system. Moreover, this aims to create a pacemaker that can be
activated by the doctor or anyone who were given the authority to do such. Through the use of sensors,
electrodes and the raspberry pi, the device is to be made that will work effective, efficient and helpful to
the society.
This study will help the people who have heart diseases or heart related diseases to monitor their
own health, specifically the status of their heart. This will help the society for be more productive as far as
time is concerned and also lessens the mortality rate due to heart attacks. As such, this study is significant.
Time will be conserved in a way that the doctor and even the other people can access the status or activity
of the patients heart through the internet and so, the doctor can assess the patient easily and the other
people is updated on what is the status of the patients heart. This applies especially on the people located
at remote places that are far from the hospitals. Addition to that, it comes with the pacemaker that is
controllable by the doctor of someone who were given the authority by the patient. This research will
really provide easier way of long run medications with observations and monitoring. The study will help
the people to have their own electrocardiography device that is cheaper and more convenient than the
traditional way of electrocardiography.
The researchers cover the study on how the existing electrocardiograms work and will create their
own electrocardiogram system through the utilization of sensors, electrodes and the raspberry pi.
However, they will not create their own electrode, sensor and raspberry pi. The data collected is only
available online and cannot access it without the internet even by the user himself/herself. There will be a
password on the website to where the data would be accessible so the people who can see the patients
heart status are to be chosen. There is a different authorization password on switching the pacemaker on
and off which probably would be the doctor or someone appointed by the patient. The real-time data is
stored in the website but with just a limited span. The system cannot act as a fetal electrocardiogram. The
device only focuses on the heart, no other parts or organs are included in the monitoring system.