The Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) monitor holds significant importance as a device utilized for measuring and recording the electrical activity of the heart. This valuable instrument provides essential information pertaining to heart rhythm, heart rate, and overall cardiac health. However, within the medical field, certain patients suffer from severe heart conditions, whereby sudden cardiac arrest may occur within a span of 12 minutes, necessitating prompt diagnosis and immediate intervention from medical professionals. This underscores the crucial role of remote ECG monitoring in the prevention and treatment of heart diseases.
Several successful advancements have been made in the realm of remote ECG monitoring systems, including the development of a PSTN-based remote ECG monitoring system, an in-hospital telemetry ECG monitoring system, and the latest innovation, a remote mobile monitoring system based on embedded mobile computing devices. In this article, TechSparks aims to present a series of functional prototypes tailored to the specific context of high-risk heart disease patients, incorporating the use of a GSM/GPRS wireless mobile communication system and the GPS global satellite positioning system. These prototypes aim to address the requirements of clinical rescue and the unique needs of high-risk heart disease patients outside the hospital setting. By enabling real-time monitoring, analysis, and early diagnosis of ECG signals, these prototypes hold the potential to significantly mitigate the risk of sudden cardiac death and augment patients’ overall sense of security and well-being.
Principles of ECG Monitoring Circuit Design
The remote real-time ECG monitoring system comprises two core components: a remote mobile terminal and a hospital monitoring center, enabling simultaneous monitoring of multiple patients within the medical facility. The remote mobile terminal is affixed to the patient’s body to continuously monitor their ECG signal, which is then transmitted in real-time via the GSM/GPRS wireless mobile network to the hospital monitoring center. This allows doctors to promptly diagnose and administer treatment when necessary. In the event of abnormal ECG readings, the hospital monitoring center immediately triggers an alert to notify the attending physician. Additionally, the monitoring center’s GIS system leverages GPS information uploaded by the mobile terminal to automatically indicate the patient’s current geographical location. This information assists the attending physician in swiftly accessing detailed patient data and issuing remote instructions tailored to the specific symptoms, thereby aiding the patient’s recovery from critical conditions.
In terms of system design, the embedded mobile terminal primarily functions to capture the patient’s real-time three-lead ECG signal. This data is subject to basic analysis, and pertinent information is displayed locally on the mobile terminal to serve as an initial warning mechanism. Simultaneously, the compressed ECG data and corresponding GPS latitude and longitude information are transmitted in batches via the GPRS communication network to the hospital central monitoring system’s database.
The hospital monitoring center serves as the central hub of the entire remote real-time monitoring system. Its primary functions encompass remote centralized monitoring, storage, analysis, and early diagnosis of ECG signals from each mobile monitoring terminal user. Additionally, the monitoring center facilitates data playback and printing functionalities, while also monitoring the parameters and status of each terminal through remote monitoring capabilities. The integration of the GIS platform’s robust spatial location analysis functionality enables the tracking, positioning, and visual representation of the geographic locations of mobile users.
Embedded Mobile Terminal Design
Hardware Design
The hardware design of the ECG monitoring circuit diagram embedded mobile terminal is founded on the ARM 7 architecture, utilizing the 32-bit microprocessor Philips LPC2200. The core component of this design is the EasyARM2200 processor module, complemented by various peripheral modules. These expanded modules facilitate crucial functionalities such as patient ECG data acquisition, human-computer interface, GPS, and GPRS communication with the hospital monitoring center. The system interface resources are optimally employed to ensure seamless integration and efficient operation.
Software Design
The embedded mobile terminal’s software design incorporates the latest development technologies for embedded systems. To enhance system reliability and real-time performance, the popular real-time operating system uCOS-II is ported to the Philips LPC2200 embedded microprocessor. The terminal’s required functions are divided into several core tasks, which are efficiently scheduled by the uCOS-II real-time kernel, enabling parallel execution of multiple tasks.
Task scheduling in the preemptive operating system follows a priority-based approach. Based on the system’s functionalities, the entire software system is categorized by priority level, ranging from high to low: ECG collection tasks, GPRS communication tasks, data analysis tasks, LCD display tasks, and GPS tasks. During system operation, the initialization process is performed first, which involves initializing data structures, allocating stack space, and establishing a message queue for inter-task communication. Subsequently, tasks are created and assigned priorities. Newly created tasks are set to the ready state, and the system program starts executing from the task with the highest priority.
Hospital Monitoring Center Design
The monitoring center system is constructed on the foundation of Windows NT LAN and encompasses various components: GPRS network server, database server, ECG center monitoring workstation, and GIS positioning management workstation.
In this study, the concept of client/server (C/S) system architecture design is implemented, employing a multi-task approach to facilitate concurrent monitoring of numerous remote users. To accomplish this, functional prototypes of both the ECG center monitoring system and GIS positioning management system are developed utilizing Microsoft Visual C++6.0 tools. The underlying database is established using the Microsoft SQL SERVER 2000 relational database system.
Summarize
In this study, we present the development of a system prototype catering to the unique requirements and clinical rescue needs of high-risk heart disease patients in medical monitoring. Our focus lies in remote real-time monitoring, addressing the challenges associated with this patient population. The system utilizes the GSM/GPRS wireless mobile communication system and GPS global satellite positioning system. It comprises an embedded mobile unit based on the ARM 7 processor and uCos-II microsystem, along with a hospital monitoring center software system developed using VC++.
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