When people suffer from chronic or long-lasting diseases life hangs by a thread. Patients remain under constant monitoring and medical supervision while they slowly recover from illnesses like congestive heart failure (CHF), a condition where the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the rest of the body. Traditionally, this monitoring confined sufferers to an uncomfortable hospital environment surrounded by other threatening diseases. But recent advances in wireless communication technology may soon allow for remote monitoring. Aside from improving patient comfort, “telehealth” may reduce healthcare costs. Telehealth is projected to be a $5 billion industry by 2010.

Interest in telehealth, and related devices has also sprung up at Cornell, where several professors work on projects related to such devices and systems.

Prof. John Belina, assistant director of electrical and computer engineering, is the advisor of the C.U. Ambumedics project team. The team works on a telehealth system. He mentioned several recent advances that have made telehealth more feasible for health care providers. Among these include the improvement of wireless networks and wireless devices.

Belina mentioned “computing power at lower energy consumption rates and better battery technologies, so the devices can still be lightweight.” His team previously created a system of electronic sensors that detect various parameters, such as temperature, heart sounds, patient movement and the level of oxygen in the blood. The data is sent via wireless to a computer where it is stored and analyzed in graphical format for physicians to interpret. In the team’s most recent implementation, they have moved onto a different platform — the iPod touch. Portable devices like the iPod or iPhone are now the preferred platform for the team, since these devices feature good wireless capabilities and significant storage capabilities.

Another advantage of the iPod is its powerful graphic display and built-in accelerometers capable of monitoring movement. The team currently works to implement monitors of body temperature, blood oxygen levels and movement. They ultimately wish to use “smart fiber” technologies to create a tight fitting, comfortable shirt with the sensors embedded. The patient can still walk around normally and wear other clothes over the shirt, allowing complete patient mobility.

Other groups on campus tackle telehealth, each with a different approach. One such group exists in the mechanical engineering department, headed by Prof. Yingxin Gao whose research focuses on the biomechanics of musculoskeletal soft tissues, including skeletal muscles, ligaments and tendons. She seeks to understand why female soccer players suffer ACL injuries at a rate four to eight times that of male soccer players. ACL injuries involve one of the four major ligaments of the knee. The group will address this question using ultrasound to measure ACL strength and shape, specifically among female soccer players, and look at the amplitude and frequency of shocks across the knee joint occurring between the femur and tibia, which are connected by the ACL. The appartus they intend to use will include a number of accelerometers to measure movement of the knee and a magnetic sensor to measure the angle of bending in the leg. This data will all be sent to a device in a fanny pack for storage and analysis.

Another group at Cornell is working on a similar system, called DexterNet, also meant to monitor the elderly while providing increased mobility. The project embodies multi-institutional collaboration. The team includes researchers from Cornell, University of California Berkeley, Telecom Italia, University of Texas Dallas, and Tampere University of Technology in Finland. According to Philip Kuryloski grad, the system is composed of stages. The first stage is wearable sensors, also known as the Body Sensing Layer can detect motion, breathing and the electrical activity of the heart. These sensors then send their data wirelessly to the next stage: the Personal Network Layer, a computer that can provides WiFi connectivity, as well as location information via the Global Positioning System. Next, software analyzes the data. For example, using data acquired from the motion sensors, they can differentiate what types of movements were done by an individual, including walking, running, turning, going upstairs or falling.

The group is currently refining a program to offer visualization of this movement through a 3-D avatar. The system can also be used in conjunction with a handheld air quality sensor for public health research involving asthma and obesity.

And in the long term, medical products using these technologies may ultimately provide mobility and freedom to many sick patients currently confined to hospital beds. The devices will undoubtedly be a boon to research in health and fitness since they allow 24-hour, comprehensive data monitoring people in their natural environment.