An Unmanned Aerial Robot and Physiological Data Monitoring System integrated into a Patient Transport Vehicle for Emergency Medical Services and Telehealth

Abstract

This paper presents the development and implementation of the following modules to enhance emergency medical services (EMS) and promote telehealth in Oman: 1) a drone (UAR) system that will be launched from an ambulance to perform the following tasks: exploring the accident site or the location of a critically ill patient, delivering first aid kits, and allowing video images of the patient to be transmitted to the ambulance; 2) a microcontroller-based physiological data monitoring system (PDMS) with early warning scoring (EWS) function and health risk assessment that reads, processes and evaluates a patient's vital signs, such as heart/pulse rate, blood pressure, SPO2, body temperature, respiratory rate, AVPU response from biosensors; 3) a global positioning system (GPS) tracking system that monitors the location of the drone, emergency transport vehicle and patient; and 4) a global system for mobile communication (GSM) module that sends the physiological data, vital sign assessments and health risk status of the patient to a doctor in the hospital via text message at a fixed time intervals. Based on the experimental data and results analysis, the drone delivered a 500g medical kit to the simulated accident site in 1 minute and 54 seconds using its precise flight controller. The UAR was deployed in the university clinic with a medical kit then traveled approximately 240 meters to the football field at the height of 21.1 meters and a horizontal speed of 23.8 kilometers per hour. Clinical data obtained from the designed PDMS are comparable with readings from commercially available medical monitoring equipment, with a mean percent difference of less than 0.5% for body temperature, Sp02, and heart rate readings, and less than 1.7% for blood pressure and respiratory rate data, based on five test sessions with ten trials of each vital sign parameter.