Columban College

College of Engineering
Olongapo City

Wireless Transmission of Biomedical Parameters Using GSM Technology

A Journal Critique

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in CMN 511

Wireless Communications

By
Arcangel, Mary Shy Lady P.
BS-ECE 5

Engr. Arlene C. Grate, ECE, MEP-ECE

Instructor

I. Journal

Title: Wireless Transmission of Biomedical Parameters Using GSM Technology

Author: Manita Rajput, Sadhana Pai, Umesh Mhapankar
Cite: International Journal of Emerging Science and Engineering, Vol. 01, Issue-09
Date Accepted: July, 2013

II. Abstract
Patient tele-monitoring is remotely monitoring the vital parameters of a patient and providing
them to the doctor at a remote location, thus ensuring mobility of both patient and the doctor. In the
present paper the physiological parameters such as Electrocardiogram, Heart rate, SpO2 and
temperature are obtained, processed and displayed in a graphical user interface. If anyone of the vital
parameter go out of normal range than an alert message is generated and sent by the system via a
GSM/GPRS modem to the authorized doctor. This work aims at enhancing the existing patient
monitoring by facilitating wireless transmission and reception of the patients data using GSM
technology. Thus an expert based health care can be provided to understaffed remote sites at crucial
circumstances. This project is a part of improvements in the field of telemedicine using LabVIEW for
Virtual Instrumentation.

II. Critique
System Issue Being Investigated
The need of medical professionals is greatly needed by people within remote areas. This is
because of the absence of medical health center near to them. With this, they need to travel long
distance just to be seen by doctors to personally check their status and to diagnose their medical
parameters. This situation causes inconvenience to a patient who suffers from illnesses.
As stated in the journal, there arises a need to improve the patient monitoring devices and
make them more mobile. The medical world today faces two basic problems when it comes to patient
monitoring. The need of presence of healthcare providers round the clock present on the bedside of
the patient and the need of patient being restricted to bed and wired to large machines. In order to
achieve better quality patient care, the above cited problems have to be solved. The first problem can
be solved through telemedicine. Telemedicine can be defined as the delivery of health care and
sharing of medical knowledge over distance using telecommunication means. The aim of
telemedicine is to provide expert-based health care to understaffed remote sites through modern
telecommunication and information technologies. The power of telemedicine is the effective use of
current technology to better services and fast treatment of ailing patients. The second problem can be
overcome through virtual instruments.
This research aims at transmitting the biomedical parameters such as critical values of ECG
signal, temperature measurements, and SpO2 levels from the remote patient location to the
cardiologist/physician using a standard GSM mobile phone. If the patients temperature and HbO2
and level and heart beat rate cross the threshold values, an alert SMS is sent on the doctors mobile.
The transmission medium of choice is the GSM network with an overlay of GPRS.

Synopsis of the Questions being Investigated

In this study, the paper being evaluated was design to develop a wireless transmission of
biomedical parameters using GSM technology. The study proposes the use of GSM technology to
transmit the status of biomedical parameters of patients within remote areas.

Overview of the Situation

The study is into making medical services a lot easier when it comes to monitoring and
responding to patients medical parameters. This study was conducted to have a wireless transmission
of the biomedical parameters of patients to respective physicians that is needed to address the
problem. This was made possible using GSM technology. The use of different sensors and devices
was used to measure the vital parameters of the patients. The ECG was acquired by the AGCL
electrode, the SpO2 was recorded through the pulse oximeter which is a non-invasive monitoring of
hemoglobin saturated with oxygen. The temperature sensing is performed by using a DS18B20
which is a digital temperature sensor. The ECG, SPO2, temperature is acquired, processed and fed
directly to the PC. These parameters are then amplified, filtered and displayed on the front panel
designed in Lab View. The software compares the real time data with the presetted threshold values
and if the threshold values are crossed, an alert SMS is sent via the GSM modem.

Objectives of the Research Work

The main objective of this work and the proposed application is to present a better health
service for the patient especially for the critical cases through wireless transmission using GSM
technology.

Experimental Environment
To achieve the desired outcome of the study the following experimental procedures and
analysis was performed.

The Lab VIEW software is used as the integrating platform for acquiring, processing and
transmitting the physiological data as it is an excellent graphical programming environment to
develop sophisticated measurement, test, and control systems using intuitive graphical icons and
wires that resemble a flowchart. The software also includes number of advanced mathematics blocks
for functions such as integration, filter and other specialized capabilities. The Lab VIEW Professional
Development System allows creating stand-alone executables and the resultant executable can be
distributed an unlimited number of times. The run-time engine and its libraries can be provided freely
along with the executable.
The low noise ECG signal is acquired by Agcl electrodes, amplified with a gain of 2500, and
filtered with a cut-off frequency 0.5-30 Hz. FilterPro software is used to design the low pass and high
pass filters. The acquired signal is further processed by Lab VIEW which is having signal processing
module. The appropriate filter and transform have been implemented and this gives noise free signal

and from that fast and reliable estimation of clinically important parameter such as R-R interval and
ECG peaks accurately achieved using Lab VIEW.
Pulse oximeter is a simple non-invasive method for monitoring the percentage of hemoglobin
(Hb) saturated with oxygen (SpO2).The sensors used are one IR LED, one Red light LED and a
single photo detector. Their switching ON/OFF are controlled y PIC 16F877A microcontroller for
precise timing generation of 5 seconds to trigger the IR and red LEDS consecutively. INA 128 is
used for amplification of these pulses. The gain set to 10. Output from this stage is applied to the low
pass and high pass filter. The filters have been designed using FilterPro software. The low pass filters
are Sallenkey, Butterworth filter of the fourth order with a cutoff frequency of 50 kHz. The high pass
filters are Butterworth filters of the fourth order with a cut off frequency of 1 kHz. LM 358 has been
used to implement both these filters. This setup is then connected to the audio port of the PC.
The temperature sensing is performed by using a DS18B20 which is a digital temperature
sensor. It gives a nine bit binary output and can be directly interfaced with the PC through a simple
circuitry.
The measured parameters were sent to the pc which processes the data into a form ready for
transmitting by using GSM module. The modem used is SIMCOM900. This is a GSM/GPRS enabled
modem which is capable of sending JPEG images as MMS which is the requirement of the project. It
works on frequencies 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz. It is very compact in size and
easy to use as plug in GSM Modem. The baud rate can be configurable from 9600-115200 through
AT command. The messages will be sent when: a. Armpit temperature crosses the range of 34.7-37.2
degree Celcius, b. SPO2 level crosses the range of 95-100% and c. Heart beat is not in the range of
60-100 bpm.

Overview of the Results

Throughout the experimentation, the results were adapted and were successfully sent through
GSM technology.
Different parameter will be sent once it crosses the limits assigned. An example is the figure
below, the temperature reaches 38 degrees Celsius, thus the system will send it to the doctors mobile
number, this signifies that the patient is in need of immediate medical assistance and response. Same
with the other medical parameters when it reaches the limit, the module will automatically sent the
measured values to the doctor responsible to that certain parameter.

Strengths and Weaknesses Compared to Other Research Work

In this section, studies related to the paper being critique were presented with significant
bearing and relation to its main objective. Furthermore, their strengths and weaknesses compared to
the study under evaluation were also stated.
The journal, entitled Implementation of GSM Based Heart Rate and Temperature
Monitoring System (2013) by Subhani Sk. M. , Sateesh G.N.V , Chaitanya Ch. and Prakash Babu
G. was a project that deals about the implementation of GSM technology in Medical applications.
This wireless communications would not only provide them with safe and accurate monitoring but
also the freedom of movement. In this, heart beat and temperature of patient are measured by using
sensors as analog data, later it is converted into digital data using ADC which is suitable for wireless
transmission using paging messages through GSM modem. AT89S52 micro controller device is used
for temporary storage of the data used for transmission. The device can be improved in certain areas
as listed below: i. A graphical LCD can be used to display a graph of the change of heart rate over
time. ii. Sound can be added to the device so that a sound is output each time a pulse is received. iii.
Serial output can be attached to the device so that the heart rates can be sent to a PC for further online
or offline analysis. iv. Warning or abnormalities (such as very high or very low heart rates) can be
displayed on the LCD or indicated by an LED or a buzzer. v. The Whole health monitoring system,
which we have proposed can be integrated into a small compact unit as small as a cell phone or a
wrist watch. This will help the patients to easily carry this device with them wherever they go. The
VLSI technologies will greatly come handy in this regard. vi. The project can be implemented as
complete patient health monitoring system by measuring B.P, Tumors etc., which can be done by
connecting corresponding sensors to the MCU.
Moreover, Haseena Reshma Pasha.R, N.Bharathi, Ph.D, and A.Lakshmi Sangeetha in the
study entitled, Biomedical Parameters Monitoring and Sharing On TCP/IP using LabVIEW

(2013) deal with Bio-medical parameters monitoring and sharing on TCP/IP network using
LabVIEW. Diagnosis and treatment of a patient at a remote location i.e. his home or inside the
hospital ward by a doctor from a respective location in the hospital can be done by examining
various parameters of the patient. These parameters have to be continuously monitored by the
doctor. The vital parameters sharing from the patient to doctor is done be TCP/IP network. The
Virtual Instrument is created using LabVIEW software which creates Graphical Control and
monitoring system. As the parameters from the patient taken are analog signals, virtual
instrument is used to see these signals as continuous waveforms for better understanding of the
patient condition. This paper provides cost effective solution for information sharing with a
hospital environment. If any of the parameters exceed the assigned nominal value, then the
doctor can be intimated automatically
In the study, A Zigbee-Based Wearable Physiological Parameters Monitoring System
(2012) by Karandeep Malhi, Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay presented a research, of applied
nature, done to monitor physiological parameters such as skin temperature, heart rate, and body
impact. A prototype was successfully developed and tested to establish the proof of concept. The
algorithms were tested and found to be accurate and reliable at this developed/development stage.
The novel aspect of the design is its low cost and detection of medical distress which does not
necessitate pressing any panic button. This is an enormous improvement over existing commercial
products. A panic button has also been provided in the developed system which can be used under an
emergency situation. With some modification, the system can be made available commercially.
Future improvements will focus on the use of flexible PCBs to replace the stiff cards, so that it could
be molded around the wrist unit, making it more comfortable for the wearer. The design of the IR
sensors could be improved to decrease its susceptibility to noise, to a point where it could be moved
on to the wrist unit. This would provide a much more comfortable and less intrusive unit, getting rid

of the need of a finger glove. Another thing is the cost of the Zigbee module that was used in the
design.

Conclusion and Recommendation

In accordance to the system observed and situation investigated throughout the conduct of the
study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1.) The use of wireless transmission through GSM
technology provides another means of monitoring physiological parameters. 2.) The accuracy of the
system designed is quite the same from the practical monitoring system used in different medical
industries. 3.) It is also one of the best ways to consider in measuring physiological parameters.
Since this is not new, and lot of research related to this has been done, the results and
observation of the study are likely to be worthy of further analysis. Thus, the following
recommendations were drawn: 1.) The use of other means of wireless communication (including
RFID) since GSM technology is quite expensive. 2.) The addition of other parameters being
measured and monitored. 3.) The use of other means measuring devices to measure the biological
parameters needed.

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