Healthcare Sensor Networks: Challenges Toward Practical Implementation

Healthcare sensor networks (HSNs) now offer the possibility to continuously monitor human activity and physiological signals in a mobile environment. Such sensor networks may be able to reduce the strain on the present healthcare workforce by providing new autonomous monitoring services ranging from simple user-reminder systems to more advanced monitoring agents for preventive, diagnostic, and rehabilitative purposes. Potential services include reminding people to take their medication, providing early warning for the onset of heart attacks or epileptic seizures, and monitoring a child's physical activity in order to assess their growth and mental development. Healthcare Sensor Networks: Challenges Toward Practical Implementation discusses the fundamental concepts in designing and building such networks. It presents the latest developments in HSNs, explores applications of the technology, and provides insights into practical design and deployment challenges. Bringing together contributions from international experts in the field, the book highlights the key areas that require further research for HSNs to become a technological and commercially viable reality. The first part of the book concentrates on the engineering challenges, covering new biosensors, energy harvesting techniques, new wireless communication methods, and novel security approaches. Building from single sensing devices to networked sensing systems, the second part of the book looks at various health applications of HSNs. It addresses the human-centric requirements that should be considered in the design of HSN technologies-cost, portability, functionality, and user acceptance-and demonstrates how engineering compromises must be made in HSN solutions. A useful and timely resource for researchers, postgraduate students, and engineers looking for innovative solutions in healthcare, this book will also be of interest to medical and allied he