Example of Key Health IOT

Have become educated in advanced BP measurement lately which led me to note this IOT example. And the need for it.    Note this is something in progress, as yet not available.

eBP: An Ear-Worn Device for Frequent and Comfortable Blood Pressure Monitoring

By Nam Bui, Nhat Pham, Jessica Jacqueline Barnitz, Zhanan Zou, Phuc Nguyen, Hoang Truong, Taeho Kim, Nicholas Farrow, Anh Nguyen, Jianliang Xiao, Robin Deterding, Thang Dinh, Tam Vu

Communications of the ACM, August 2021, Vol. 64 No. 8, Pages 118-125  10.1145/3470446

Frequent blood pressure monitoring is the key to diagnosis and treatments of many severe diseases. However, the conventional ambulatory methods require patients to carry a blood pressure (BP) monitoring device for 24 h and conduct the measurement every 10–15 min. Despite their extensive usage, wearing the wrist/arm-based BP monitoring device for a long time has a significant impact on users' daily activities. To address the problem, we developed eBP to measure blood pressure (BP) from inside user's ear aiming to minimize the measurement's impact on users' normal activities although maximizing its comfort level.

The key novelty of eBP includes (1) a light-based inflatable pulse sensor which goes inside the ear, (2) a digital air pump with a fine controller, and (3) BP estimation algorithms that eliminate the need of blocking the blood flow inside the ear.

Through the comparative study of 35 subjects, eBP can achieve the average error of 1.8 mmHg for systolic (high-pressure value) and -3.1 mmHg for diastolic (low-pressure value) with the standard deviation error of 7.2 mmHg and 7.9 mmHg, respectively. These results satisfy the FDA's AAMI standard, which requires a mean error of less than 5 mmHg and a standard deviation of less than 8 mmHg.

Back to Top

1. Introduction

BP provides doctors with insight to initiate their diagnosis. For example, chronic kidney disease, sleep apnea, and adrenal and thyroid disorders can all cause high BP, whereas low BP indicates the possibility of heart or endocrine problems, dehydration, severe infection, or even blood loss. Additionally, uncontrolled elevated BP is a major symptom of many life-threatening diseases, such as hypertension, heart failure or stroke.4 Commonly, the reliable approach to measure BP was done by a health care practitioner using inflatable wrist cuff with a pressure gauge. Since the invention of digital BP devices, nonmedical trained users can self-measure their BP at home, as an acoustic sensor can replace the stethoscope, and a pressure sensor with a DC pump can substitute the pressure gauge and hand pump. However, these devices often cause discomfort and inconvenience for those who need frequent BP monitoring, such as hemodialysis (kidney failure) patients,18 individuals with undiagnosed white coat hypertension or undiagnosed masked hypertension. There is also an increased use of frequent BP monitoring for postoperative organ transplant recipients. In such cases, BP is measured every 30 min for 24 h,9 although each hemodialysis session takes around 4 h. Therefore, there is a significant need for an unobtrusive and comfortable BP monitoring approach. In the case of prolonged dialysis, patients hardly rest because the BP cuff constantly squeezes their arm and often hinders the wearer's mobility. Therefore, by moving the location of measuring BP to inside the ear, our device has a minimal impact in affecting the users' mobility and comfort.

In this paper, we aim to develop a novel wearable system to capture BP inside the ear called eBP, as illustrated in Figure 1. eBP resolves the aforementioned issues with its discreet design, quiet components, and convenient location.  .....'