Implementation of Near Field Communication Based Healthcare Management System

Abhishek Gune , Anirudha Bhat , Abhijith Pradeep Electrical and Electronics Department, Birla Institute of Technology and Science

Pilani , India.

Abstract— This paper proposes the application of Near Field Communication (NFC) for patient monitoring. The present paper proposes a NFC based architecture to implement patient record much faster. Different patient monitoring NFC based modules have been proposed in the paper pertaining to patients admitted to hospitals , self-care patients , patients suffering from memory loss diseases like Alzheimer, etc. With advances in medicine and technology, the focus is on creating better healthcare systems. With NFC technology, hospitals can better track patient information and update doctors’ notes thus improving patient monitoring. Wearable health-related devices, ranging from heart monitors to biosensors that read body temperature, blood pressure etc. transmit critical information in real time to the patient’s NFC tag. The doctor can then easily tap his/her device at the tag and then obtain the data. NFC is used to implement Electronic Medical Records (EMR) which aims at simplifying the process of keeping medical records. The specialized software stores patient history including digitized copies of x-rays, lab results and prescriptions. With the help of NFC tags, the patient’s EMR can be synchronized and stored temporarily at the hospital for easy access by the physician. Further the patient’s records and doctor’s prescriptions for that day can also be updated. Keywords :- Near filed communication, Topaz tags , short distance communication , low energy air core transformer , Electronic medical records, NDEF , Amplitude Shift keying , biosensors

I. INTRODUCTION Near field communication is a recent communications technology. Near Field Communication (NFC) is capable of a maximum data transfer rate of 424kb/s. It utilise electromagnetic field induction to power the passive tags. NFC operates in a very short range typically between 5-20 cm. It operates at 13MHz, and transfer occurs at 424 kb/s. The short range may appear like a disadvantage, but this short range can be effectively used for applications which require a lot of security such as payment, the short range prevents interception of the signal by a third party. Two NFC devices active or passive connect much faster than a typical Bluetooth device pairing operation. In the field of patient monitoring devices there is demand for efficient wireless connections between these devices. NFC is a very attractive choice as it is very easy and intuitive to use. NFC also has applications in other areas such as in fitness monitoring. For example, an

NFC tag can be incorporated in a weighing machine or a treadmill, the data collected by these machines can be transferred to a smart phone. An application in the smart phone can maintain and analyze the data. NFC can also be used to collect important information such as the data about the blood sugar etc and transfer them to database sensors or control devices meant for patient health monitoring.

The number of NFC enabled mobile phones is set to increase by a large amount over the next few years and these phones can be effectively be used as interfacing devices between patient database servers and health management processors.

The main benefit of NFC is its ease of use. Bluetooth requires users to manually set up connections between smartphones and takes several seconds. NFC connects automatically in a fraction of a second, so fast it seems instantaneous. Though the users must be close to one another to use NFC technology, it is faster and easier to set up than a Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth does still offer a longer signal range for connecting during data communication and transfers. NFC technology has taken advantage of this and can connect two devices quickly, then turn the signal over to Bluetooth so the owners can move further away without severing the connection. While NFC and Bluetooth are both short-range communication technologies, there are significant differences between how the two operate and the capability of each. NFC operates at slower speeds than Bluetooth, though it also consumes less power and does not require pairing between devices.

II. NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION MODEL

A Simulink model in Matlab demonstrating the Near Field Communication has been used to generate Bernoulli random number to stimulate a digital signal to be modulated using amplitude shift keying (ASK) as shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1. ASK modulation

The NFC demodulation Simulink model is depicted in Figure 2 to evaluate theea data transfer delay of the transmitted data through the NFC modulated link.

Figure 2. Demodulation of the Signal..

Figure 3. Input and output the NFC model in

Simulink . The first graph shows the generated signal, the second shows the modulated signal and the third shows the received signal.

III. ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS (EMRS)

An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is more beneficial than paper records because it allows providers to track data over time, identify patients who are due for preventive visits and screenings, monitor how patients measure up to certain parameters, such as vaccinations and blood pressure readings. Further it also helps is improving the overall quality of care in a practice.

In a crisis, EMRs provide instant access to information about a patient's medical history, allergies, and medications. This can enable providers to make decisions sooner, instead of waiting for information from test results. EMRs also have the ability to better coordinate the care they give, this is especially important if a patient has a serious or chronic medical condition, such as diabetes. EMRs can also flag potentially

dangerous drug interactions (to help prescribing doctors explore alternatives before a problem occurs), verify medications and dosages (to ensure that pharmacists dispense the right drug), and reduce the need for potentially risky tests and procedures. Different kinds of patient monitoring are possible. NFC can be used in monitoring patients whose data needs to be collected, and then sent to a doctor periodically, like once in a day. Important patient information can be stored in these NFC tags and for monitoring patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease etc. The data from these tags can then be collected easily by just tapping or pointing the mobile phone towards them[8]. This is prototype is demonstrated using the Topaz NFC Forum Type 1 Tag and other devices and drivers.

IV. NFC BASED HEALTH CARD NFC circuitry, being small in size, can be inserted

into almost any object of our wish. Hence the NFC tags in the form of keychains or other objects that we carry around can be used as health card. The card will have the following details about the patient( card holder)

• Name • Emergency contact No. • Family doctor’s details • Blood group • Serious health issues • Allergic medicines • Surgeries done • A link to the EMR saved in a global online

server like google docs. These tags will help the hospital and doctor to know

all the necessary details about the patient in case of emergency. If the hospital or the doctors phone have internet access then they can access the full EMR of the patient from the global drive using the link given in the tag giving even more details about the patient’s medical history.

A health card is written as text tag so that even a device that can’t recognise the health tag can read it. First 3 characters of the text are kept as ‘hlT’ to differentiate it from other text tags. Then the details are saved in tags in order. Different parameters are allocated different blocks of physical memory in tag so that the software can differentiate different parameters from the tag data. A special software also developed to recognise health card, display the information and access the online EMR automatically as soon as a health Card is brought in contact with the NFC tag reader in the hospital.

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In future these tags can even be inserted into human body as an identification and emergency data.

V . NFC based EMR management system :-

To provide the doctors, patients and hospitals with an easy to use and highly portable medical data storage and retrieval technology a system was developed using the NFC technology.

The developed system comprised of four main components:

• Data acquisition • Processing the data and storing it in EMR. • Storing the data in NFC tags following NDEF

format. • Data Retrieval from NFC tag

A. Data acquisition

Data acquisition was done using sensors that are

interfaced with the Computer using Serial communication. The main sensors used to monitor patients health include:

• Blood Pressure Monitor (TM-2430) automatically calculates the blood pressure and transfers the data to a computer.

• Electrocardiography (ECG-903B) have build in USB/RS232 interface.

• Temperature sensor (3312A) was interfaced with the computer using ATmega8.

B. Processing the data and storing it in NFC tag. The data dynamically collected from the sensors was stored as EMR using a program build using MATLAB. A program was also made to search the EMR according to patient’s name, time or disease. The data in should be transmitted to NFC tag using NDEF format, which involves the data written as hex arrays. So the data was converted to hex array and saved in text file. Data was stored in the NFC tags which followed the NDEF format [3]. The NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) specification defines a message encapsulation format to exchange messages between an NFC Forum Device and another NFC Forum Device or an NFC Forum Tag[1]. An NDEF message is a combination of one or more NDEF records. Each record is again divided into a Header and a Payload. Payload is the data or message that we want to sent and the Header contains the information about the message like its Identifier, length and type[2]. The hex data was read from the text file and an NDEF message was formed which was written into the tags using Smartcard commander and SCL010 contact less stationary NFC reader. The data is written as a text message that no special software is required at the data retrieval end to decode and understand the data written in the tag, making it universal.

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Figure 9. The data stored in NFC tag.

C. Data Retrieval from NFC tags The Data Retrieval should be done on two occasions, when doctor come for his regular visits and when the patient is transfered to a new hospital. In the first case when the doctor comes for his routine visits he just have to tap his NFC enabled phone on the tag and all the data stored on tag as a text message will be transferred to the phone which he can directly read or save it for further references. A special android app was also build to display the data is a tabular format and to highlight the abnormal data which will help the doctor to work more efficiently. In second case when the patient was transferred to a new hospital the tag can be used in the new hospital to create a new EMR. A code was written in Smartcard commander to read the messages written in the tag and to create a hex text file and then a program build using MATLAB was used to write the data to EMR and then continue writing data coming from the new sensors to the EMR.

NFC based healthcare management system would comprise of the following modules :-

Check-ins: Better than sign-in sheets or even kiosk sign-ins--NFC-enabled smartphones could allow patients to check in at the doctor's office, hospital.

Staff location/management: Home care companies in the Netherlands and the U.K. are using the technology to

determine when staff arrive and leave a patient's home, and to allow them to upload and download patient information in a hands-free manner. And there's a clear case for using NFC technology to sign healthcare workers in and out of hospital units. At-home diagnostics: Companies may develop a testing platform that would combine NFC with immunoassay technology to allow at-home self-testing for pregnancy, fertility, drugs, allergens and even pathogens. Fitness: NFC chips could enable smartphones to automatically upload (or download) an individual's exercise performance, rather than requiring them to upload or data-enter their information. Emergency connectivity: EMTs could use the technology to identify injured patients without touching or moving or even talking to them. Pharmacy: Patients could update and refill prescriptions and get information on side effects through NFC-enabled phones. Bluetooth allows for the transfer of much more data than NFC over much greater distances. NFC is short range and is conducive for passive disposable wireless sensors. The two are complementary and both will work with the same handset. Let’s take the example of a patient leaving the hospital who is given an NFC sensor patch to wear. The hospital can then set times to automatically ping the patient’s cell phone at home. The patient can then swipe their NFC handset over the area where the sensor is placed and the data is sent back to the hospital. You can think of NFC as essentially a stripped down sensor that leverages the power of the cell phone and the networks and is disposable. Bluetooth is not disposable and needs a battery. Certain diagnostic sensors, such as pressure sensors, need to be hand calibrated and will cost more. We believe that NFC will allow significant cost savings across all medical areas. There is no question it is cheaper to supply a patient with a disposable sensor package kit complete with low cost cell phone than it would be to keep that same patient in the hospital. This technology essentially allows the phone to become the nurse in the patient’s home.

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V. CONCLUSION

As current health care systems are struggling with resource problems in many countries, self-care patients are increasingly forced to manage their diseases themselves. Nowadays however with the availability of NFC-enabled smart phones, with this initiative we can provide a self-monitoring system which is easy to-use, robust, maintenance-free and commercially viable.

The model that we aim to develop may serve as a prototype to meet the challenging needs of healthcare. NFC will enable the healthcare provider to improve remote patient monitoring, improve patient safety and reduce overhead. NFC technology, in the very near future will be an integral part of the next generation of tablets and smartphones.

* Abhishek Gune is pursuing B.E (Hons.) in Electrical & Electronics Engineering at BITS-Pilani,(phone:091-7891400298; e-mail: f2010034@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in).

*Anirudha Bhat is pursuing B.E (Hons.) in Electrical & Electronics Engineering at BITS-Pilani,(phone:091-9166659603; e-mail: f2010135@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in).

*Abhijith Pradeep is pursuing B.E (Hons.) in Electrical & Electronics Engineering at BITS-Pilani,(phone:091-8058422696; e-mail: f2011219@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the Prof.L K Maheshwari

(Former Vice Chancellor , BITS-PILANI) Foundation for funding the project “Near field communication based healthcare Management System” which enabled us to perform practical and experimental analysis. We are also grateful towards the faculty of the Electrical and Electronics Department, BITS-PILANI for their fruitful inputs and insightful discussions.

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