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`AMON: a
`wearable
`multiparameter
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`monitorin...
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`Wireless
`telemedicine
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`overview
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`Author(s)
`
`
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` RenGuey Lee ; KueiChien Chen ; ChunChieh Hsiao ; ChwanLu Tseng
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`Abstract:
`Hypertension and arrhythmia are chronic diseases, which can be effectively prevented and controlled only if the physiological parameters of the patient
`are constantly monitored, along with the full support of the health education and professional medical care. In this paper, a rolebased intelligent mobile
`care system with alert mechanism in chronic care environment is proposed and implemented. The roles in our system include patients, physicians,
`nurses, and healthcare providers. Each of the roles represents a person that uses a mobile device such as a mobile phone to communicate with the
`server setup in the care center such that he or she can go around without restrictions. For commercial mobile phones with Bluetooth communication
`capability attached to chronic patients, we have developed physiological signal recognition algorithms that were implemented and builtin in the mobile
`phone without affecting its original communication functions. It is thus possible to integrate several frontend mobile care devices with Bluetooth
`communication capability to extract patients' various physiological parameters [such as blood pressure, pulse, saturation of haemoglobin (SpO ), and
`2
`electrocardiogram (ECG)], to monitor multiple physiological signals without space limit, and to upload important or abnormal physiological information to
`healthcare center for storage and analysis or transmit the information to physicians and healthcare providers for further processing. Thus, the
`physiological signal extraction devices only have to deal with signal extraction and wireless transmission. Since they do not have to do signal
`processing, their form factor can be further reduced to reach the goal of microminiaturization and power saving. An alert management mechanism has
`been included in backend healthcare center to initiate various strategies for automatic emergency alerts after receiving emergency messages or after
`automatically recognizing emergency messages. Within the time intervals in system setting, according to the medical history of a specific patient, our
`prototype system can inform various healthcare providers in sequence to provide healthcare service with their reply to ensure the accuracy of alert
`information and the completeness of early warning notification to further improve the healthcare quality. In the end, with the testing results and
`performance evaluation of our implemented system prototype, we conclude that it is possible to set up a complete intelligent health care chain with
`mobile monitoring and healthcare service via the assistance of our system.
`
`Published in: IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine ( Volume: 11, Issue: 5, Sept. 2007 )
`
`Page(s): 507 517
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` INSPEC Accession Number: 9632985
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`Date of Publication: 10 September 2007
`
`DOI: 10.1109/TITB.2006.888701
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` ISSN Information:
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`PubMed ID: 17912967
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`Publisher: IEEE
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`Sponsored by: IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
`IEEE Computer Society [Technical CoSponsor]
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`IEEE Xplore Document A Mobile Care System With Alert Mechanism
`
`IEEE Keywords
`Medical services, Biomedical monitoring, Mobile handsets, Mobile communication, Data mining,
`Patient monitoring, Condition monitoring, Bluetooth, Signal processing, Prototypes
`
`INSPEC: Controlled Indexing
`telemedicine, Bluetooth, diseases, health care, knowledge based systems, mobile computing, mobile
`radio, patient care, patient monitoring
`
`INSPEC: NonControlled Indexing
`mobile care system, healthcare service, healthcare quality, emergency messages, backend
`healthcare center, wireless transmission, signal extraction devices, information transmission,
`information analysis, information storage, frontend mobile care devices, physiological signal
`recognition algorithm, Bluetooth communication, mobile phone communication, chronic care
`environment, rolebased intelligent mobile care system, professional medical care, health education,
`patient monitoring, physiological parameters, chronic diseases, arrhythmia, hypertension, alert
`mechanism
`
`Author Keywords
`ubiquitous, Alert, Bluetooth, Java programming, mobile care, mobile phone
`
`Cellular Phone, Diagnosis, ComputerAssisted, Electrocardiography, Ambulatory, Feasibility Studies,
`Heart Diseases, Humans, Mobile Health Units, Pilot Projects, Remote Consultation, Taiwan
`
`Authors
`
` RenGuey Lee
`Nat. Taipei Univ. of Technol., Taipei
`
`RenGuey Lee (M'06) was born in 1965. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from
`National Chen Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1989, and the Ph.D. degree in
`electrical engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU), Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 2000.
`
`Since 2002, he has been with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Graduate Institute of
`Computer and Communication Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT), Taipei,
`where he is currently an Associate Professor. His current research interests include medical
`informatics, telecare and mobile care systems, and wireless sensor networks for biomedical
`applications.
`
` KueiChien Chen
`
`KueiChien Chen received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from National Taiwan
`University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1985 and 1990,
`respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Graduate Institute of Computer
`and Communication Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT), Taipei.
`
`He is currently a Lecturer at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology (LHU), Taoyuan, Taiwan,
`R.O.C. His current research interests include Bluetooth technology, sensor network design, and
`» Pervasive, secure
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`IEEE Xplore Document A Mobile Care System With Alert Mechanism
`telemedicine applications.
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` ChunChieh Hsiao
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`11/10/2016
`access to a
`hierarchical
`sensor...
`Y. M. Huang; M. Y.
`Hsieh;...
`
`» A wearable point
`ofcare system for
`home use that...
`Jianchu Yao; R.
`Schmitz;...
`
`ChunChieh Hsiao received the M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the State
`University of New York, Buffalo, in 1990.
`
`He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan
`University (NTU), Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
`
`During 1991–1993, he was with the Computer and Communication Laboratory (CCL), Industrial
`Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan, where he focused on research and development of
`advanced computer graphics systems. From 1993 to 2003, he was with the Department of Electrical
`Engineering, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology (LHU), Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C. Since
`2003, he has been with the Department of Computer Information and Network Engineering, LHU. His
`current research interests include telecare and mobile care systems, wireless sensor networks for
`biomedical applications, and advanced computer systems.
`
` ChwanLu Tseng
`
`ChwanLu Tseng graduated degree from National Taipei Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan,
`R.O.C., in 1985, and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from National Taiwan University (NTU),
`Taipei, in 1991 and 1995, respectively, both in electrical engineering.
`
`Since 2000, he has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
`Taipei University of Technology (NTUT), Taipei. His current research interests include signal
`processing, automation, and robust control theory and its applications.
`
`Dr. Tseng is a member of Phi Tau Phi.
`
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`IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICINE, VOL. 11, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2007
`
`507
`
`A Mobile Care System With Alert Mechanism
`
`Ren-Guey Lee, Member, IEEE, Kuei-Chien Chen, Chun-Chieh Hsiao, and Chwan-Lu Tseng
`
`Abstract—Hypertension and arrhythmia are chronic diseases,
`which can be effectively prevented and controlled only if the physi-
`ological parameters of the patient are constantly monitored, along
`with the full support of the health education and professional med-
`ical care. In this paper, a role-based intelligent mobile care system
`with alert mechanism in chronic care environment is proposed and
`implemented. The roles in our system include patients, physicians,
`nurses, and healthcare providers. Each of the roles represents a
`person that uses a mobile device such as a mobile phone to com-
`municate with the server setup in the care center such that he
`or she can go around without restrictions. For commercial mo-
`bile phones with Bluetooth communication capability attached to
`chronic patients, we have developed physiological signal recogni-
`tion algorithms that were implemented and built-in in the mobile
`phone without affecting its original communication functions. It
`is thus possible to integrate several front-end mobile care devices
`with Bluetooth communication capability to extract patients’ var-
`ious physiological parameters [such as blood pressure, pulse, satu-
`ration of haemoglobin (SpO2), and electrocardiogram (ECG)], to
`monitor multiple physiological signals without space limit, and to
`upload important or abnormal physiological information to health-
`care center for storage and analysis or transmit the information to
`physicians and healthcare providers for further processing. Thus,
`the physiological signal extraction devices only have to deal with
`signal extraction and wireless transmission. Since they do not have
`to do signal processing, their form factor can be further reduced to
`reach the goal of microminiaturization and power saving. An alert
`management mechanism has been included in back-end health-
`care center to initiate various strategies for automatic emergency
`alerts after receiving emergency messages or after automatically
`recognizing emergency messages. Within the time intervals in sys-
`tem setting, according to the medical history of a specific patient,
`our prototype system can inform various healthcare providers in
`sequence to provide healthcare service with their reply to ensure
`the accuracy of alert information and the completeness of early
`warning notification to further improve the healthcare quality. In
`the end, with the testing results and performance evaluation of our
`implemented system prototype, we conclude that it is possible to set
`up a complete intelligent healt care chain with mobile monitoring
`and healthcare service via the assistance of our system.
`
`Manuscript received April 8, 2006; revised August 18, 2006 and October
`9, 2006. This work was supported by the National Science Council of the Re-
`public of China, Taiwan, under Contract NSC94-2627-E-002-001 and Contract
`NSC94-2213-E-027-012.
`R.-G. Lee is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, National
`Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10643, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail:
`evans@ntut.edu.tw).
`K.-C. Chen is with the Graduate Institute of Computer and Communication
`Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10643, Taiwan,
`R.O.C., and also with Lunghwa University of Science and Technology (LHU),
`Taoyuan 33306, Taiwan, R.O.C.
`C.-C. Hsiao is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
`Taiwan University (NTU), Taipei 10617, Taiwan, R.O.C., and also with the
`Department of Computer Information and Network Engineering, Lunghwa Uni-
`versity of Science and Technology (LHU), Taoyuan 33306, Taiwan, R.O.C.
`C.-L. Tseng is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
`Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10643, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail:
`f10940@ntut.edu.tw).
`Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TITB.2006.888701
`
`Index Terms—Alert, Bluetooth, Java programming, mobile care,
`mobile phone, ubiquitous.
`
`I. INTRODUCTION
`
`I N recent years, healthcare for elderly people has been an im-
`
`portant research topic. The commonly seen chronic diseases
`for elderly people include hypertension and arrhythmia. The cur-
`rent healthcare for such diseases is still mainly from outpatient
`services. Due to the development of information and commu-
`nication technology (ICT), the feasibility of home telecare has
`been highly raised. In the literature, the telecare services were
`first provided by utilizing traditional public switched telephone
`network (PSTN). Lee et al. used a cable television (CATV) net-
`work to transmit electrocardiogram (ECG) data to healthcare
`center and to provide function of video conversation between
`healthcare providers and patients [1]. Because of the fast de-
`velopment and popularity of the Internet, the telecare medical
`applications to provide long-term monitoring and healthcare by
`transmitting personal physiological information via the Internet
`have become highly feasible [2]. Guill´en et al. have proposed a
`telehomecare multimedia platform utilizing videoconferencing
`standards H.320 and H.323, and a standard TV set based on
`integrated services digital network (ISDN) and Internet proto-
`col to let patients upload their physiological information to a
`healthcare center and to provide home telecare services such
`as teleconsultations [3]. Apart from that, to provide a safer and
`more comfortable inpatient and resident healthcare environment
`and to achieve the purpose of illness prevention, it has been an-
`other trend for development of home telecare system to integrate
`various miniature flexible noninvasive biosignal sensors inside
`patients’ clothing for ease of daily dressing and for long-term
`monitoring and vital signs extraction of the patients [4].
`However,
`the above-mentioned healthcare systems have
`restricted the activity area of patients to be within the medical
`healthcare institute or within the residence area. To provide more
`freedom to patients, it is important to integrate wireless commu-
`nication technology for modern healthcare systems [5]–[11]. Lin
`et al. [5] have utilized a personal digital assistant (PDA) to
`monitor and collect the physiological parameters extracted by
`a physiological signal module attached to patients. The physio-
`logical information is then immediately transmitted to a remote
`central management unit for analysis by medical personnel via
`wireless local area network (WLAN). Home telecare service has
`been further extended to become mobile care service [6]–[11]
`due to the ubiquity of global system for mobile communications
`(GSM) and general packet radio service (GPRS). Anliker et al.
`[6] have proposed a wearable multiparameter medical moni-
`toring and alert system called advanced care and alert portable
`telemedical MONitor (AMON). In their system, front-end
`wrist-worn monitoring device is connected to back-end
`
`1089-7771/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
`
`0007
`
`
`
`508
`
`IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICINE, VOL. 11, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2007
`
`telemedicine center via GSM mobile network such that
`healthcare service to patients is not restricted to specific areas.
`Rasid and Woodward [7] designed a Bluetooth telemedicine
`processor to first process extracted physiological signal and then
`transmit the processed physiological information wirelessly to a
`Bluetooth mobile phone, which then uploads the physiological
`information to a back-end medical healthcare institute via a
`GPRS mobile network. It has also been broadly applied to
`the design of a healthcare system to utilize a GSM/GPRS
`mobile network to provide healthcare service with functions
`of emergency alerts and early warning messages [6], [8]–[11].
`All of the above-mentioned GSM/GPRS communication parts
`are designed and implemented by using commercial modules
`such that the user-end healthcare devices are of larger form
`factor, which subsequently reduces the desire of patients to
`carry the devices and increases the power consumption. The
`popularity of mobile phones has highly increased recently.
`For example, in the U.S., the popularity of mobile phones was
`70% up to 2005 with expected popularity of 87% in 2010,
`while in 2002, the popularity of mobile phones in Taiwan was
`already near 100%.1 It thus becomes feasible to use commercial
`mobile phones as platforms for physiological signal processing.
`Moreover, some mobile phones provide a Java programming
`design environment and Bluetooth interface. This can reduce
`the form factor of user-end physiological signal extraction
`devices and save power, and thus, increase the patient’s desire
`of usage. The healthcare services of emergency notification
`messages can also be realized by utilizing the commercial
`mobile phones’ GSM/GPRS communication capabilities.
`This paper proposes to utilize Bluetooth commercial mobile
`phones as physiological signal processing platforms to con-
`struct a ubiquitous mobile care system to increase the feasibility
`of mobile care services and to increase the desire of users. As
`described above, this paper focuses on the advantages of mo-
`bile devices and utilizes Bluetooth mobile network to integrate
`multiple front-end physiological parameter extraction devices.
`It also refers to the alert mechanism of Kafeza et al. [8] to ex-
`tend to each role of telecare to construct an intelligent mobile
`care platform to actively provide healthcare services to multiple
`parties of patients and healthcare providers without spatial and
`temporal limitations and thus improve the quality of healthcare.
`The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II out-
`lines the system analysis and healthcare scenarios. Section III
`depicts the system architecture. Section IV describes the design
`of system software. Section V gives the system implementation
`results. Overall system performance and experiments are evalu-
`ated and described in Section VI. Finally, Section VII provides
`some discussions and conclusions based on the implemented
`mobile care system.
`
`II. SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND HEALTHCARE SCENARIOS
`
`Our proposed healthcare system mainly takes care of chronic
`patients who can live normally when the health condition is sta-
`ble, while are in desperate need of help and assistance to reduce
`
`1Weekly of business next digital times. [Online]. Available: http://www.
`bnext.com.tw
`
`the probability of deteriorating health conditions or even death
`when their physiological conditions become abnormal or when
`they fall ill. Such chronic patients can perform some simple self
`healthcare and monitoring functions via mobile phones through
`our proposed system when health condition is stable. When the
`patient’s health condition becomes abnormal, the proposed sys-
`tem can automatically inform physicians or healthcare providers
`to further provide medical and healthcare services and can thus
`effectively reduce the cost of healthcare.
`In general, a healthcare scenario includes different roles such
`as patients and various healthcare providers. Analysis on infor-
`mation exchanged between different roles can induce an alert,
`which can be implemented via short message technology in
`mobile communication networks [10]. Through implementa-
`tion of alert mechanism, our mobile healthcare system provides
`a general information transmission service to achieve various
`intelligent healthcare functions. We use two healthcare scenar-
`ios to demonstrate the function of our proposed system. One is
`“patients do not upload physiological parameters on schedule”
`and the other is “the result of measurement is abnormal and our
`system automatically informs care providers.”
`
`A. Patients do not Upload Physiological Parameters
`on Schedule
`
`In the first healthcare scenario, the subject is a patient with
`hypertension or with cardiac diseases. The patient falls asleep
`at noon. In this healthcare process, the alert message transmis-
`sion process of the alert system is as shown in Fig. 1(a) and is
`described as follows.
`1) The patient does not upload blood pressure/ECG data on
`schedule.
`2) The care center automatically sends an urgent alert to
`notify the patient.
`3) The patient does not receive the alert or does not reply to
`it for some reason.
`4) The care center raises the urgency level of the alert and
`resends the alert to notify the healthcare provider.
`5) The healthcare provider goes to the location of the patient
`to provide necessary healthcare services.
`6) The healthcare provider replies with the result of alert
`processing.
`
`B. Result of Measurement is Abnormal and our System
`Automatically Informs Care Providers
`
`Take the case of a chronic patient with hypertension as an
`example. Wherever the patient goes, he or she will carry a mobile
`phone and a Bluetooth hemadynamometer. When the patient’s
`condition is not good, he or she will feel uncomfortable, for
`example, he or she might have a headache or feel dizzy. In this
`healthcare process, the alert message transmission process of
`alert system is as shown in Fig. 1(b). The process of healthcare
`giving is described as follows.
`1) The blood pressure of a hypertension patient increases for
`some reason and causes headache and dizziness.
`
`0008
`
`
`
`LEE et al.: A MOBILE CARE SYSTEM WITH ALERT MECHANISM
`
`509
`
`mobile phone needs to receive and integrate data from various
`physiological parameter extraction devices and provide com-
`munication link between patients and healthcare center server.
`The mobile phone supports Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) [12] in
`software, and Bluetooth and GSM/GPRS modules in hardware
`to integrate functions on personal mobile-end. The software in-
`cludes two major software package modules: blood pressure
`and pulse monitor module and ECG monitor module. Back-
`end healthcare center server consists of a GSM/GPRS module
`that can transmit and receive short messages, and a care cen-
`ter host. The GSM/GPRS module and personal computer (PC)
`with Internet connection are used to develop functions needed
`for healthcare center server.
`
`IV. SYSTEM SOFTWARE DESIGNS
`The software modules in personal mobile phone is analyzed
`and designed with an object-oriented method, and represented
`by using unified modeling language (UML) [13]. The design
`phases are as follows: requirement analysis, object model de-
`sign, code implementation for software model, simulator exe-
`cution, and upload to real mobile phone Nokia 7610 2 for final
`test. While for the healthcare center host, Borland C++ Builder
`6.0 software is used to develop window application programs.
`ActiveX data objects (ADO) components are used to access
`ACCESS database, and advance technology (AT) command in-
`struction set is used to control GSM module to transmit and
`receive short message. The function and design of each soft-
`ware module is introduced as follows.
`
`A. Blood Pressure and Pulse Monitor Software Module
`Blood pressure and pulse monitor software module provides
`a way for mobile phone to utilize Bluetooth wireless connec-
`tion to integrate with Bluetooth hemadynamometer to control
`the Bluetooth hemadynamometer to measure and extract blood
`pressure and pulse. The measurement result can also be dis-
`played directly on the mobile phone, and can transmit short
`messages to physicians or other heath care providers to provide
`proper healthcare. The use case diagram for this blood pressure
`and pulse monitor software module is as shown in Fig. 3(a).
`The physiological parameter measurement application pro-
`gram of blood pressure and pulse monitor module provides
`three functions. The first function is to provide a user graphical
`user interface (GUI) to let the patient operate mobile phones
`and hemadynamometers easily, and display information such as
`physiological parameter measurement values and alert notices.
`The second function is the Bluetooth application programming
`interface (BT API) to let application programs utilize Bluetooth
`functions. The last function is the short message service (SMS)
`API [14] to let application programs transmit and receive short
`messages containing physiological parameter measurement val-
`ues and alert notices.
`To extract the physiological parameters measured with front-
`end Bluetooth hemadynamometer, our presented system uses
`Bluetooth mobile phone with JAVA APIs for Bluetooth Wire-
`less Technology (JABWT) to develop client application program
`
`2Forum Nokia. [Online]. Available: http://www.forum.nokia.com
`
`Fig. 1. Alert message transmission diagram for (a) not uploading physio-
`logical parameters on schedule and (b) automatic notification of abnormal
`conditions.
`
`2) The Bluetooth hemadynamometer measures the physio-
`logical parameters such as blood pressure and pulse rate,
`and then transmits the data to the mobile phone wirelessly.
`3) The mobile phone uploads the physiological data to the
`database in healthcare center server in hospital.
`4) If some abnormal conditions are identified by simple pro-
`grams that run in the mobile phone, short messages are
`sent immediately to the physicians or the other healthcare
`providers.
`5) If some abnormal conditions are identified by professional
`judgment via the healthcare center server, related person-
`nel such as local officers are informed instantly or an am-
`bulance is dispatched immediately to perform necessary
`rescue in the location of the patient.
`
`III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
`
`The system architecture deployment diagram of our proposed
`mobile healthcare platform is as shown in Fig. 2. The whole sys-
`tem architecture mainly consists of front-end personal mobile
`device and back-end care center server.
`The front-end personal mobile device comprises a physiolog-
`ical parameter extraction device and a mobile phone integration
`device. The physiological parameter extraction device consists
`of various physiological parameter extraction devices for blood
`pressure, pulse, and ECG with wireless Bluetooth module. The
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`IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICINE, VOL. 11, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 2007
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`Fig. 2.
`
`System architecture deployment diagram.
`
`Fig. 3. Use case diagrams for (a) blood pressure and pulse monitor software module, (b) ECG monitor software module, and (c) healthcare center server.
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`LEE et al.: A MOBILE CARE SYSTEM WITH ALERT MECHANISM
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`MIDlet [15] to control and use Bluetooth hemadynamometer to
`realize the physiological parameter extraction function on pa-
`tient ends. MIDlet utilizes JABWT to control hemadynamome-
`ter to accomplish commands such as blood pressure measure-
`ment and parameter setting.
`The methods
`for
`interface DiscoveryListener in
`javax.bluetooth API have to be implemented in programs
`to let MIDlet receive RemoteDevice and ServiceRecord
`found by DiscoveryAgent. Connection address attributes in
`remote device service records are used to setup connection
`to utilize services provided by remote devices. Since RFCOMM
`is provided in the Bluetooth hemadynamometer, the API of
`Javax.microedition.io’s StreamConnection interface can
`be used to set up connection (btspp://). After the connection has
`been set up, mobile phone application programs can easily use
`serial port transmission protocol to communicate with Bluetooth
`hemadynamometer to transmit control commands and receive
`physiological parameter measurement data. Finally, the data can
`be transmitted to physicians or other healthcare providers with
`short messages.
`
`B. ECG Monitor Software Module
`
`The ECG monitor softw