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HOLTER with Remote Data Processing for Student Design Competition 2013

Contact Information

University: National Advanced School of Engineering,

Team Members (with year of graduation): (1) MOLE  HAMMA Fidel, (2) KANMEGNE Igor Boris, (3) TJOMB NOB Jean Stéphane

Faculty Advisers: Pr KOM Martin 

Email Address: kommart@yahoo.com / fidelmole@yahoo.fr

Submission Language : English

Project Information

Title:  HOLTER with remote data processing

Description:

Abstract


Health as well as the level of development in Cameroon is still very low. Following the OMS report, there is only one doctor to 10400 inhabitants in Cameroon. In 2007, PNUD in one of its IDH ('Indice de Développement Humain) tables, rangs Cameroon at the 141th position out of 177. In addition, cardiovascular diseases are second in line after malaria in causing deaths in Africa.

The growth of any nation is a function of the « good health » of its population which constitutes one of its major resources. In developing countries access to health is limited only to the “privileged ones”. Nevertheless, more and more persons are being affected by diseases which yesterday where absent in poor countries. This is the case of cardiovascular diseases whose treatment has been made difficult by the high cost and portability of the electrocardiograph.

An initial attempt to this problem was put in place by the American Norman HOLTER. The holter is a portable device which permits the continues recording of the electrocardiogram within at least 24 hours. This system eliminated all the limitations related to the electrocardiograph and innovations have been made in terms of its miniaturization.

The project on which we are working on is a technological innovation. It has as objective to remotely monitor in real time a patient suffering from a cardiovascular disease.  The signals obtained from the patient will then be transmitted by means of a wireless GSM or GPRS network to a control center and in case of any malfunctioning, the patient and a doctor are alerted.

Project Introduction

Man in his continuous quest for better living conditions does not stop developing state of art tools. In an attempt to contribute to the growth of our country, National Instrument has launched a competition called National Instrument Innovation Design Competition 2013- Cameroon. This completion has as objective to put to test innovation and entrepreneurship and to permit Cameroonian engineers to propose projects that will solve problems in their local communities.


          We are 5 year students (final year students) of the National advanced school of engineering Yaoundé studying electrical and telecommunications engineering.   We are proposing the realization of a remote holter. It is a data acquisition, data processing and data transfer process. The project stands a chance of creating an important social impact since it will facilitate the access of this device to many which as yet is not easily accessible. It will equally facilitate the task for the cardiologist since data processing is automatic and the cardiologist is only alerted in case of a problem with the patient.

          This document represents the final report of the project. It begins by the design methodology which will be adopted to reach our objective. Next we have the design architecture of the solution and functional description of each block of the architecture. Finally we have a chapter called “results and discussion” where the socio-economic impact, the importance of National Instruments materials and the solutions of our challenge are evaluated.


Design Methodology


In this part, we will give tasks list, tasks planning and a validation process of main stage. The next figure presents briefly our solution to the problem statement.

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Design Architecture

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Functional Description

Patient

A patient is any person who is affected by a cardio-pulmonary diseases or who is suspected to be affected.

Holter

a)      Holter: input/output

We have a digital data as output. That supposes this block converts the analog signal in input to digital signal in output (ECG).

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b)      Functional decomposition

In this paragraph, we present a functional description of a holter.

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c)      Operational decomposition

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d)      Structural decomposition

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Transmitter / Receiver

a)      Input/ output

This block converts electric signals and binary data images to electromagnetic waves 

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b)      Function and operations

The transmitter/receiver block provides a double function:

  • The electrocardiogram data transmission: in fact, the measures of the cardiac impulse digitized, we have now to transmit them to the processing unit (the server).
  • The reception of alert message coming from the processing unit.

The realization of this double function is possible thanks to modulation and demodulation operations. The first one consists to place a signal on a carrier   in order to use it for a specific transmission channel, while the second one consists to remove the carrier from the modulate signal in order to use only the useful signal.

The modulation system of the technology we use is the GSM/GPRS.

c)      Choice of module: GPRS/GPRS form

The functional digram of this module is shown below.

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Summary statement of device

The emission device summary diagram is given below.

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Server of the application

The application will be based on the following model.

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Simulation diagram

For the general simulaton of the project, we use the following diagram

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The holter consist of three electrodes. These three electrodes correspond to three voltages V1, V2 and V3.the first simulations that follow are realized by the MULTISM software. The circuit is made up of two parts:

  • The amplification block (instrumentation amplifier) which is used to acquire and condition the ECG signals. It amplifies the difference of the two electrode voltages in the order of 1000. The components are measured to respond to the specifications.
  • The filtering block: components of this block are designed to cut signal frequencies above 100 kHz.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Social and environmental impacts

From the social point of view, this project has three impacts:

  • Decreasing cardiopulmonary diseases mortality
  • Making people more aware of (NICT) New Information and Communications Technologies
  • Improving the follow-up of patients in developing countries (palliate to the problem good doctors shortage)

On the environmental platform, this project helps protecting the planet through a reduction of the emission of greenhouse gas. In fact, thanks to the technology resulting from this project, neither the doctor nor the patient will necessary need a physical interview for the treatment conduct, and this will help reducing physic moving, which will reduce by the same way the consumption of fossil fuel for transports.

Marketing plan


The establishment of the marketing plan aims at finding answers to the following points:

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a)      The Product

The principal product is the Holter, which goes with an auxiliary call-back service necessary to the use of the latter. It is about the processing service in real time of the holter data (electrocardiogram, diagnostic), which service will be also commercialized (periodic fixed sum) and the results will be available for consultation on the web site via an account allocated to each client. 

Our clients are people suffering from cardiopulmonary diseases, whether these diseases are suspected or confirmed.

b)     Objectives

Our long term objective is to be able to sell our product and the services attached it in the global market. But it is only progressively that this objective can be reached, the first stage representing our short term objective.

The said short term objective is to introduce the holter in the domestic (Cameroonian) market, which is the first market targeted by this work, owing to the already known environment and the high frequency in the country of the problems resolved in this project.

c)      Market survey

This survey is necessary for the implementation and the commercialization of this project. It will help us determining our customers, evaluating the market size and our market segment, identifying the suppliers and the potential competitors. This survey is a key stage in our marketing plan and following it, changes and improvements of the various aspects herein presented will be made.

d)     Financing

The implementation of this project requires a large investment that we cannot provide in full. After the setting-up of a business plan up to the standard, we will look for financial support from certified financial structures as SME bank in Cameroon. We will also look for the support of National Instruments in terms of financing or funds research.

e)      Production

The full realization of the prototype and all the project requirements is necessary. The mass production of the product could be ensured by a trade contracting firm using the suitable technology and able to perform it at low cost. Quantities will be evaluated after market survey. Advices from National Instruments concerning the choice of the said trade contracting firm are also necessary.

f)       Distribution

The distribution of this product shall be ensured by hospital clinics including hospitals, clinics or drugstores. But in order to achieve this, we shall first of all get an authorization from hospital authorities to sell our product.

g)      Marketing

  This aspect is also very important and will be discussed more after the market survey. However, we can already list as strategies to expand our product and our hospital services the

implementation of information seminars and the deployment of medical representatives on the field for them to collect data.

h)      Activities schedule

Aspects of the marketing plan roughly explained above can be classified in the following schedule:

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Labview and other materials NI Importance

Due to the fact that this project is a competition of National Instrument, it is necessary to highlight the tools used in this context.

a) MYDAQ

MyDAQ tool is an instrument of outstanding performance as it is used for practical simulation and validation of our work. It is sort of the basic element of transition between the developed theory and the practical part.

b) MULTISIM

Multisim is used for electronic circuit design. This software allows the view of input and output holter signals. It is easy to use and has several predefined functions that are not common.

c) LABVIEW

This software is useful:
- To import signals from myDAQ to Labview;
- To study and analyse ECG signals;
- To design the platform and interface management services.
It should however be noted that a large list of additive material was necessary. This material contains mainly resistors, capacitors, operational amplifiers, connectors and a test plate.

Video link and images captions

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CONCLUSION

Upon completion of this project report, let’s recall that it was a question of putting in place a Holter teleprocessing device with the aim of reducing the impact of cardiovascular diseases and attacks. All in all, we have laid a project strong enough to have a significant social impact in the foundation of developing countries like ours.


Indeed, a significant portion has been designed, simulated and implemented regarding the acquisition of ECG signals from the patient. Processing side, instruments and LABVIEW myDAQ allow us to visualize and record the signals.

However, a section on the transmission of signals (which we specified in the architecture design part) has not been simulated and implemented. This is due to non-availability of transmission equipment and also the fact that the transmission block was not easily modelled.

We define as perspectives of this project:

  • Optimization and miniaturization of Holter device;
  • Integration of a GSM or GPRS card in the device;
  • Optimization of block scanning signals;
  • Construction and completion of the full transceiver device;
  • Feasibility study for the establishment of a central processing server;
  • Comprehensive Economic Assessment of the whole study and the profitability of the project;


We have to thank the company National Instruments for everything they have implemented to promote creativity, innovation and development in our country. This project has allowed us to learn by touching the equipment. It is a "theory-engineering" interface that is well established in this contest it would be important to maintain over time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCES

[1]       Katz AM, Physiology of the heat 2nd ed. New York, Raven Press. 1992.

[2]       WILEY, “Real time digital signal processing, implementation and applications”, 2006

[3]       Iriawa H and al, Cardiac peace-making in the sinoatrial. node 73 : 197 – 227. 1993

[4]       P. LE HUY and al «Un Simple Système de Télémétrie pour les signaux Bioélectriques »

[5]       Kimmich, H.P. « Biotelemetry » in J. G. Webster (ed.), Encyclopedia of Medical Devices and Instrumentation. New York: Wiley, PP 409 – 425. 1988

[6]       SWYNCHE DAUW B. BEAUFILS. Le Coeur. Fonctionnement, dysfonctionnements et traitements. Dossiers documentaires. Paris. INSERM Nathan. 1995

[7]       Opie LH. The heart. Physiology and Metabolism. New York, Raven Press. 1991.

[8]       KOM Martin Contribution à l’Etude d’un système d’acquisition et de traitement de l’électrocardiogramme et des Potentiels Tardifs. Thèse de doctorat d’Etat. 1999-2000.

[9]       HOWARD V et al. Micro computers and Electronic instrumentation, Making the right connections, Washington DC 1994

Contributors