Medical

Home-Based healthcare

Electronic hardware is enabling highly detailed home-based monitoring, via which data on acute or chronic medical conditions such as cardiovascular, respiratory, or renal, can be obtained. This data can then be studied by the assigned healthcare professional or caregiver. Monitoring procedures may also be automated, with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms being used to look for irregularities that might be a cause for concern, then flagging them.

Home monitoring equipment can be in the form of either portable units or body-worn solutions. Among the parameters that may be measured are heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and pulse oximetry. There is a broad range of sensors and wireless transceivers available from EBV for these purposes. Monitoring through use of cameras or thermal image sensors distributed around the home can also help to extend independent living for the elderly or infirm. It means that a caregiver or relative can check that the day-to-day behavioural patterns of the person being monitored are occurring as normal. Such home-based behavioural monitoring will require imaging solutions and power-efficient AI accelerator chips.

As well as monitoring, there are increasing opportunities for medical treatments to be carried out in the home. This means that patients with long-term health issues will be able to avoid spending prolonged periods in hospitals. Examples of this include people suffering from kidney failure being able to benefit from home-based dialysis, plus use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) equipment to combat the effects of sleep apnoea.

The use of wireless devices, plus MEMS accelerometers and flow sensors, can help to ensure medication adherence - something that has been identified as a major problem in the healthcare sector, with reports stating that fewer than half of patients are keeping to their medication regimes or administering doses in the right way. Through use of this technology, it can firstly be checked that patients are taking their medication at the correct time and with the correct frequency, and that the dosage is being applied in the proper manner and will therefore have the expected effect. This can be applied to inhalers for asthma sufferers, insulin pens for diabetics, and various other kinds of drug administering devices.

Body-worn monitoring equipment and fitness trackers need to be lightweight, compact, and comfortable to wear. This means that the electronic components selected for such designs must have small physical dimensions. Among the components involved will be sensors, ultra-low power wireless-enabled microcontroller units (MCUs) and non-volatile memories. Trusted platform module (TPM) MCUs or secure element chips will be essential if secure data transactions are to be assured.

Clinical environment

Hospitals are large scale and highly complex operations with huge amounts of equipment being utilised on a daily basis, with items often being moved from one place to another. Accurate asset tracking is therefore very important. Through the use of UWB, BLE or NFC, staff can be kept up to date about the position of vital pieces of equipment around the site. This means that specific items can be quickly accessed when needed in an emergency, as well as safeguarding them against potential loss or risk of theft.

Portable equipment will be used throughout hospital wards, as well as by paramedic teams out in the field responding to call-outs. Often this equipment will be battery-operated, so strong power efficiency characteristics will be mandated. Here, once again, ultra-low power digital and analogue ICs will need to be selected.

Preventing the spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and COVID-19 within hospitals and other healthcare operations is a key concern for medical professionals, so that they can make certain vulnerable patients are not put in danger. Through exposure to photons of UV-C light (with wavelengths in the 100nm to 280nm region) DNA/RNA replication processes can be inhibited and viruses made inactive. Consequently, interest in its use for disinfecting surfaces and sterilised equipment is increasing.

UV-C Surface disinfection demonstrator Units from EBV

Featuring advanced technology from numerous key EBV’s supply partners, we can now offer our UV-C surface disinfection demonstrator units. These units are helping to combat the spread of infection and make hospitals safer.