Low-cost fog-assisted health-care IoT system with energy-efficient sensor nodes

TLDR

Heart disease affects millions worldwide, and while ECG monitoring is essential, conventional devices are costly, bulky, and energy‑inefficient, limiting widespread use. This study introduces a low‑cost, continuous remote ECG monitoring system with automatic analysis and notification. The system uses energy‑efficient sensor nodes that wirelessly transmit ECG, respiration, and temperature to a fog‑based gateway, which processes data, generates visualizations, and delivers real‑time alerts to caregivers.

Abstract

A better lifestyle starts with a healthy heart. Unfortunately, millions of people around the world are either directly affected by heart diseases such as coronary artery disease and heart muscle disease (Cardiomyopathy), or are indirectly having heart-related problems like heart attack and/or heart rate irregularity. Monitoring and analyzing these heart conditions in some cases could save a life if proper actions are taken accordingly. A widely used method to monitor these heart conditions is to use ECG or electrocardiography. However, devices used for ECG are costly, energy inefficient, bulky, and mostly limited to the ambulatory environment. With the advancement and higher affordability of Internet of Things (IoT), it is possible to establish better health-care by providing real-time monitoring and analysis of ECG. In this paper, we present a low-cost health monitoring system that provides continuous remote monitoring of ECG together with automatic analysis and notification. The system consists of energy-efficient sensor nodes and a fog layer altogether taking advantage of IoT. The sensor nodes collect and wirelessly transmit ECG, respiration rate, and body temperature to a smart gateway which can be accessed by appropriate care-givers. In addition, the system can represent the collected data in useful ways, perform automatic decision making and provide many advanced services such as real-time notifications for immediate attention.