Reliable Set-Up of Medical Body-Sensor Networks

Wireless medical body sensor networks enable a new way of continuous patient monitoring, extending the reach of current healthcare solutions. They improve care giving by a flexible acquisition of relevant vital sign data, and by providing more convenience for patients. Applying the general concept of sensor networks to the medical domains requires development of reliable, distributed microsystems with secure and failsafe system set-up and efficient operation. The system has to work automatically, but has also to be always under explicit control of any clinician. To address this, we realized a medical body sensor network, covering a set-up procedure that involves dedicated sensors for patient identification, as well as a special configuration pen for reliable, easy system set-up. The system architecture has been validated by an implementation based on the UC Berkeley Motes System. Main advantages that we achieve are interference-free operation of different body sensor networks in close vicinity, as well as intuitive usage by nontechnical personnel.