Future Medical Technology

Medical check-ups at home

There is growing demand for monitoring or periodically supervising people’s state of health in any environment. In this field, the Instrumentation, Sensors and Interfaces Group of the UPC’s Department of Electronic Engineering in Castelldefels is working on the design of systems that enable patients’ vital signs to be monitored in domestic environments.

The researcher Oscar Casas reminded us that “not so long ago, houses were only equipped with a thermometer, and, with a bit of luck, a set of scales. Now it is not unusual for people to have portable equipment for measuring blood pressure or devices for testing blood sugar levels at home. Our aim is for this growing range of health systems for individual, rather than hospital, use to be available to everyone”.

The Group has designed a system for simultaneously detecting heart and respiratory rates that functions with force sensors, which are used to measure weight, even in conventional electronic scales. This domestic application can measure the aforementioned parameters faster than current systems, which tend to be uncomfortable for the patient due to the direct contact between the sensor and the skin and whose measurements can be affected by the movement of the sensor. Work is currently being undertaken on a chair that enables the measurement of these and other physiological parameters.

The future of these systems, which are useful for monitoring and supervising elderly or disabled people, involves making sensors that do not require contact, so that they can be concealed from the person who is being supervised and have the least possible impact on their daily activities. This enables action to be taken only when strictly necessary.