Ambulatory monitoring of free living patients affected by Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Parkinson's Disease (PD) using Wireless Sensor Networks

Ambulatory investigations have become more and more important as many medical or physiological investigations that can be performed under the real situations of daily life. To perform complex physiological investigations under ambulatory conditions over long period of daily life, we have developed a real-time monitoring system for ambulatory patients that consist of a vital signs sensor, sensor network, electronic patient records and web portal technology to allow monitoring of ambulatory patients status and to alert medical personnel when life-threatening events occur. Ambulatory patients include the patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) during rehabilitation period. This system will facilitate communication among patients, medical professionals at local hospitals and provide knowledge discovery through integrated data mining. It also prevents the patient from re-hospitalisation and to avoid possible critical events, thus reducing global healthcare costs.