ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846

Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(S(1)), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9iS1/108434, December 2016 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

Patient Health Monitoring System Using IoT and

Cloud Based Processing
K. Haripriya, Chaganti M. Aravind, V. Karthigayen and P. Ganesh
Department of ECE, SRM University, Vadapalani, Chennai - 600026, Tamil Nadu, India; [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud based processing can be used to monitor health conditions of patients after major
­surgeries. Information from various sensors is processed by PIC16F877A microcontroller which sends data to GSM Network
with the help of IoT module. A relay is used to switch between IoT module and GSM module based on the output voltage
of the sensors. The data transmitted from the microcontroller is stored on the cloud for long term storage and access. The
address of the webpage used should be configured in the IoT module. Alert signal is sent to caretaker in case of emergency.
This system is easy to setup with low power consumption and high performance. This system uses GSM network so can be
used even in rural areas where broadband facility is not available.

Keywords: Cloud Based Processing, GSM Module, IoT Module, PIC16F877A Microcontroller, Relay, Sensor,

1. Introduction monitor the patient from anywhere across the world2.

Typically the patient health monitoring system con-
In today’s world it is very difficult to carry patients from sists of various sensors that measure the physiological
home to hospitals for regular checkup. There are lot of chal- information from the patient and transfer them to the
lenges like waiting in the queue, travelling time and patient microcontroller as electrical signals. The microcontroller
may be prone to various infections moving in this polluted processes this physiological data and transmits them to
environment. So the health care industry is focussing on associated website that is linked to the IoT module. The
in-home health care services where the patient can undergo doctor or the care taker can access the website by typ-
medical check-ups in the comfort of his home environment. ing the unique id given to the patient. As we are storing
Health care industry is working together with Information the data in the cloud it can be accessed anywhere, any-
and communication technology industry to develop mod- time over the internet. The patient need not carry all the
els that reduces the time consumption, increasing accuracy medical reports for the check-up. The doctor can directly
and interoperable on any platform that can be beneficial to access the medical reports by typing the patient’s id on
both hospitals and patient1. Nowadays Internet of Things that website.
is attaining development on a rapid pace and experts esti- In the existing system the transmission of data received
mate that about 50 billion devices will be connected to the from sensors is intermittent. If any critical parameter is
internet by 2020. It is a technology in which all the devices recorded it sends an alert message through GSM tech-
like vehicles, buildings, sensors etc. are connected to the nology to the registered caretaker. There is a drawback in
internet through the existing infrastructure. the existing system is that the continuous monitoring of
Biotelemetry is the electrical technique for ­conveying patient health is not possible. Even though the patient is
biological information from a living organism and its taken to the hospital in time the doctor may not come
environment to location where the information can be to conclusion with which critical health condition the
observed or recorded. A wireless health monitoring patient has comeback without further testing of patient.
device will be attached to the patient and physicians can Hence it is a time consuming process.

*Author for correspondence

 Patient Health Monitoring System Using IoT and Cloud Based Processing

Figure 1. Typical IoT topology.

2. Methods and Materials

IoT based devices can exchange information with each Figure 2. Architecture of health monitoring system based
other and are uniquely addressed and identifiable anytime on IoT.
and anywhere using the Internet. Remote health monitoring
systems using IoT based devices can automatically exchange
information with health institutes through the Internet.
Aautomatic alarm can be sent to the nearest healthcare
institute in the event of a critical accident for a patient.

2.1 Hardware and Software Description

The Hardware and software used in designing our project
are described below.
Figure 3. Circuit diagram of power supply system.
2.1.1 Power Supply Unit
PIC16F877A works on 5 V DC power supply. The power
supply for domestic applications is about 230 V AC. This 2.1.2 PIC16F877A Microcontroller
230 V AC supply is step down to the required 5 V using PIC16F877A microcontroller is 8-bit microcontroller. It
an IC7805 voltage regulator. The power supply setup con- consists of 40 pins in dual in line package and works on
sists of a transformer whose primary coils are connected CMOS technology. It has 8 channels of Analog to Digital
to the mains supply. The secondary of the transformer is converter. It consists of analog comparator module with
connected to the bridge rectifier and is step down to 12 V two analog comparators, programmable on-chip voltage
DC supply. The efficiency of bridge rectifier is high. But reference (Vref) module. It supports incircuit serial pro-
the output of the bridge rectifier is not exactly a DC signal gramming via two pins. It has Watch Dog Timer (WDT)
and it contains ripples. A capacitor is connected to the with its own on-chip RC oscillator for reliable opera-
diode so as to filter the ripples present in the output and tion. It supports power saving sleep mode. It has fully
a pure DC signal is obtained. The output can be further static design and operating voltage range between 2 V
reduced to 5 V using 7805 voltage regulator. to 5 V3.

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 K. Haripriya, Chaganti M. Aravind, V. Karthigayen and P. Ganesh

2.1.3 Temperature sensor

The LM35 series are precision integrated-circuit
­temperature devices with an output voltage linearly-
proportional to the Centigrade temperature. The output
of this temperature sensor is calibrated in centigrade. It
operates in the range of 4-30 V and suitable for low power
consumption applications. It exhibits an accuracy of 0.50C
at 25oC and operates between -55oC to 150oC. The linear
scale factor is about 10 mv/oC4. Figure 5. LCD module.
The general equation used to convert output voltage to
temperature is: Temperature (1oC) = V (out)∗ (100oC/V) 2.1.7 LCD Display
so if V (out) is 1V, then Temperature = 100oC5. A 16X2 display module is employed to display 16 ­characters
in 2 rows. LCD has two registers namely command and
2.1.4 Pulse Oximeter Sensor data. The command instruction stores the command
A pulse oximeter is a non-invasive device used to ­measure instructions given to LCD. Data register stores data to be
the oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin, instead of displayed on LCD. It has totally 16 pins. 8 Bi-directional
measuring directly from blood sample. It is very help- data pins D7-D0.3 control lines RS, RW, EN.VCC-power
ful for continuous measurement of oxygen saturation supply, VEE-Contrast Adjustment, Ground, Backlight
of blood. The pulse oximeter may be incorporated into led (0 V) and Backlight LED (5 V). The data that is being
a multi-parameter patient monitor. Most monitors also transmitted can be read from LCD module.
display the pulse rate.
2.1.8 MAX 232
2.1.5 ECG Sensor MAX232 is an essential component in serial communica-
tion. It is used to convert the CMOS logic levels to RS232
The ECG sensor attached to the patient measures electrical
levels and vice versa8,9. It acts as a bidirectional driver/
activities of heart over a period of time. The sensor out-
receiver circuit. It reduces the noise and prevents from
puts are converted to digital signal. The data acquisition
external short circuits. It operates at a speed of 120 kbits/s.
is carried out using microcontroller and is transmitted
It supplies a very low current of 8 mA.
through IoT module.
2.1.9 GSM Module
2.1.6 Heart Beat Sensor
A GSM module is a communication medium used for
Heart beat sensor uses a pair of LED, LDR and
sending or receiving the data over the existing mobile
microcontroller6,7. Light is passed using LED from one
architecture. It operates on a 5 V power supply. A sim-
side of the finger and intensity of light is measured on
card of any cellular operated should be inserted in it
the other side using an LDR. As the heart rate increases
and the charges are levied on the user for availing the
intensity decreases. As a result there will be a change in
services provided by the cellular operator. It is operated
resistance value of LDR. The output voltage is amplified
on frequencies like 800/900/1800/1900 MHz. It can be
and detected using microcontroller.
interfaced with the computer or microcontroller through
attention commands. The data can be transmitted as SMS
or MMS and voice messages. We can also avail internet
access with the help of GSM/GPRS module. It supports
various software features such as FTP/HTTP, SSL, TCP/
UDP protocol and jamming detection.

2.1.10 IoT Module

Iota module is useful for the transmission of data
Figure 4. Temperature sensor. ­collected from the sensors to the internet by using Hyper

Vol 9 (S(1)) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3
 Patient Health Monitoring System Using IoT and Cloud Based Processing

Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) through a GSM modem. Windows, is easy to use and includes a host of free
The data is displayed over a webpage which can be viewed software components for fast application development
from anywhere all over the world. The data collected from and super-charged debugging. It supports various pro-
this is stored on the cloud for continuous monitoring of gramming languages like embedded c and java. It has a
patient health over a long period of time. graphical project manager.

2.1.11 Relay 2.2 Configuration

Anything connected to the 220 V mains supply can be 2.2.1 PIC Microcontroller
switched on and off by using a relay enabled low volt- The PIC microcontroller is placed on a PIC ­development
age circuit. Here we are using JQC-3FC (T73) DC12V in board. Power supply system is connected to it and all the
our project. The typical usage of relay in our project is necessary code for accessing various features like analog
to switch the power supply between the Iota module and to digital conversion (ADC), USART, LCD for access-
GSM module. ing the sensors are written in embedded C language in
MPLAB and is loaded into PIC controller using PIC
2.1.12 Buzzer KIT 3.
A piezoelectric buzzer is an electrical device which
­produces sound on the arrival of input voltage signal. 2.2.2 Sensor Interfacing
This is used to alert the care taker in case of emergency
All the required four sensors are connected to the general
condition.
purpose input/output pins of Pic microcontroller. Each
sensor is given a particular threshold value.
2.1.13 Programming using Embedded C
Code speed of embedded programs is governed by 2.2.3 IoT Module
­processing power and timing constraints. Code size of
The PIC microcontroller transmitter pin (RC6/TX) is
embedded programs is governed by program memory
­connected to the IoT module receiver pin (RX). A sim
and use of programming languages. Processing power
card has to be inserted into the module so that it can access
and memory is limited in embedded devices.
the mobile network of that particular network operator.
The IoT module has a Leds that glow on receiving the sig-
2.1.14 MPLAB IDE
nal from the mobile network and indicates whether the
MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a strength of the signal is strong or weak. The PIC micro-
free, integrated toolset for the development of embedded controller is connected to this IoT module using RS232
applications employing Microchips PIC microcontrollers. cable. It has an antenna pad. The website address in which
MPLAB IDE runs as a 32-bit application on Microsoft the results have to be displayed has to be linked to the IoT
module.

2.2.4 LCD and Buzzer

LCD and buzzer are connected to the GPIO pins of PIC
microcontroller.

2.2.5 Relay
In this project the relay driver is connected to the GPIO
pins of the microcontroller, IoT module and GSM
modem. It switches the power supply between IoT mod-
ule and GSM modem based on the delay time set in the
microcontroller. Because of this the results gets updated
in the internet and the message is sent to the registered
Figure 6. IOT module. mobile number.

4 Vol 9 (S(1)) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology
 K. Haripriya, Chaganti M. Aravind, V. Karthigayen and P. Ganesh

2.3 Working
2.3.1 Data Acquisition
Data acquisition is carried out by the sensors that
­measure the various physiological data and carries these
­bioelectrical signals to the microcontroller.

2.3.2 Data Transmission

Typically the data collected by the microcontroller is
transmitted to the internet using IoT module and an SMS
can be sent to the caretaker if any critical parameter is
Figure 8. Simulation of ECG sensor.
recorded. The mobile number of the caretaker is written
in the program. Individual sensor’s data can be accessed
via computer or mobile connected to internet.

2.3.3 Cloud based Processing

Diagnoses and prognosis of a number of health condi-
tions and diseases can be done using the sensor data.
Long term storage of patient’s health information can be
done and the health information can be accessed using
internet. In this project we are displaying the results in the
website www.iotclouddata.com.
Figure 9. Simulation of temperature sensor.
3. Results
In the Figures 7-10 we have shown the software ­simulation
of sensors used in our prototype using proteus 8 ISIS soft-
ware. The code has been written in MPLAB and tested in
proteus.
We have fixed a particular threshold value for each
sensor and if there is any change in the reading it dis-
play the abnormality in the LCD screen, updates in the
internet and sends SMS to the care taker and sounds the
buzzer. The following Tables 1-4 indicates the threshold
values used for sensors and changes found during soft-
ware simulation. We have also successfully implemented Figure 10. Simulation of pulse oximeter sensor.

Figure 7. Simulation of heart rate sensor. Figure 11. Working model of health monitoring system.

Vol 9 (S(1)) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5
 Patient Health Monitoring System Using IoT and Cloud Based Processing

the hardware prototype of our project as shown in Figure Table 4. Characteristics of pulse oximeter sensor
11. The results were displayed in the internet as shown Pulse Oximeter Sensor Characteristic
in Figure 12 and SMS has been sent to the care taker as Greater Than 90 Normal
shown in Figure 13.
Less Than 90 Abnormal

4. Conclusion
In this model the continuous monitoring of patient can
be achieved by collecting the physiological information
from various sensors, processing them using PIC micro-
controller, transmitting the data through GSM and IoT
Figure 12. Results of patient health condition displayed in
module and storing the results in the internet you can
the website www.iotclouddata.com.
access the data anywhere and there is no problem even
you forgot any report while consulting a physician. He
can access the details by typing the particular id given to
the patient.
The future scope of this project is to integrate all the
sensors into single chip by the use of fabrication in nano-
scale and by making it as bio patch that can be attached to
the skin and transmit the data through wireless medium,
so that the mobility of the patient increases.

5. Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to our project
in-charge Mrs. K. Haripriya for guiding us in publish-
­

ing this paper and helping us in successful competition

of project.

6. References
Figure 13. Emergency SMS sent to the caretaker. 1. Hassanalieragh M, Page A, Soyata T, Sharma G. Health
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Greater Than 90 Abnormal on Service Computing; 2015 Jun. p. 285–92.
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system using mixed environment. INDJST. 2015 Aug;
Table 2. Characteristics of ECG sensor 8(20):1–7.
3. Microchip. 8-bit flash-based microcontroller with A/D con-
ECG sensor Characteristic
verter and enhanced capture/compare/PWM. PIC16F716
Greater than 60 bpm Normal Datasheet; 2007. p. 1–126.
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