A Modular System for Rapid Development of Telemedical Devices

Remote patient monitoring is gradually attracting more attention as the population in developed countries ages, and as chronic diseases appear more frequently in the population. Miniaturization in electronics and mobile technologies has led to rapid development of various wearable systems for remote monitoring of vital signs, supervision systems in home care, assistive technologies and similar systems. There is a significant demand for developing the necessary devices very rapidly, especially for shortening the way from an idea to a first function sample. This paper presents a solution for rapidly developing devices for telemedical applications, remote monitoring and assistive technologies. The approach used here is to design and realize a modular system consisting of input modules for signal acquisition, a control unit for signal pre-processing, handshaking of data communication, controlling the system and providing the user interface and communication modules for data transmission to a superordinate system. A description of specific applications developed on the basis of the system is also presented in the paper.