Telemonitoring systems for respiratory patients: technological aspects

This review introduces the reader to the available technologies in the field of tele- monitoring, with focus on respiratory patients. In the materials and methods section, a general structure of telemonitoring systems for respiratory patients is presented and the sensors of interest are illustrated, i.e., respiratory monitors (wearable and non -wearable), activity track- ers, pulse oximeters, environmental monitors and other sensors of physiological variables. Afterwards, the most common communication protocols are briefly introduced. In the results section, selected clinical studies that prove the significance of the presented parameters in chronic respiratory diseases are presented. This is followed by a discussion on the main current issues in telemedicine, in particular legal aspects, data privacy and benefits both in economic and health terms. (c) 2019 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia. Published by Elsevier Espan similar to a, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY -NC -ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/).