Remote patient monitoring using GSM and GPS technologies

We present the design and implementation of a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) system based on wireless technology using a cellular phone, to send an SMS (Short Message Service) to the medical staff. The proposed system combines two commonly used technologies namely, Global System for Mobile (GSM) and Global Positioning System (GPS). This indeed is an easy, practical, inexpensive and yet very effective way for transmitting vital information to the healthcare staff and healthcare providers. The system monitors patient's health status, such as SPO2 (oxygen percentage in blood), heart rate, and temperature. In case, the value for any of these parameters exceeds preset critical values, the position parameters, from the attached GPS module, are transmitted to pre-defined phone number in form of SMS using a GSM module. All the information obtained from the human body using a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) and an oximeter is then transmitted to the microcontroller system as digital values. The values obtained from DSP like SPO2, heart rate and temperature is also displayed on to the attached LCD in alphanumerical form. In the conclusion we consider how this system can be further improved in future, may be by adding new type of sensors as well as using new approaches for the security and triggering alarm.