Smart Health Monitoring System for Pregnant Women of Rural Regions

Abstract

Enhancements in healthcare capabilities improve living standards in the current era. Human capital is vital in technologically advanced and developing countries. In developing countries, maternal deaths occur due to a lack of medical facilities and infrastructure. The death ratio in pregnant women due to lack of medical facilities in advance and developing countries is 9:1. Most developing countries have poor medical information systems, which causes pregnant women to have very few routine check-ups in the early stages of their confinement. This results in an increased death rate of infants and maternal in backward regions. This is nowadays a major health concern for pregnant women of rural regions in developing countries like Pakistan. Existing medical approaches for such issues consist of devices and wired sensors which are very costly. Ultrasound examinations are performed using Bluetooth devices as well. But these approaches are costly and not easily available in backward regions. The proposed framework helps to solve this issue using wireless technology. The physical movement of a fetus as well as maternal are measured using commercial-off-the-shelf sensors. These sensors consist of an accelerometer, temperature sensor, and heart rate sensor, and blood pressure. Sensor data is forwarded using IoT to the mobile phone. Mobile phones transmit the collected data to the cloud for processing, analysis and results, and storage.

The proposed work helps in providing a low-cost method of movement of the fetus and bodily parameters of pregnant women of rural regions in developing countries. The proposed system provides better care using IoT and commercial off-the-shelf sensors.