Each year cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes 3.9 million deaths in Europe and over 1.8 million deaths in the European Union (EU). These are alarming statistics and in most cases the cause is of ventricular arrhythmias. Ventricular arrhythmia is an abnormal electrocardiograph (ECG) rhythm and is responsible for 75%–85% of sudden deaths in persons with heart problems unless treated within seconds. The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator has been considered as the best protection against sudden death from ventricular arrhythmias. Long-term ECG monitoring is the standard criterion for the diagnosis of ventricular arrhythmia.
Numerous ECG sensors are already available on the market; however, such sensors are bulky and suffer from inaccuracies, large power consumption and short battery lifetime. Moreover, the majority of them are based only on ECG monitoring whereas multi-sensor functionality is desirable to holistically monitor several vital signals that can be essential for meaningful home health care, sporting activity and remote patient-doctor communication.
There is a tremendous necessity to develop a personalized multi-modal vital signs monitoring device that is seamlessly integrated with the skin with multi-fold increased sensor accuracy and powered by a battery and with a very low form factor. To address the aforementioned problems, we propose for the first time an electronic smart system with multiple sensors to monitor ECG, respiratory flow, oxygen flow, and temperature. To ensure autonomy of the system, we will customize the design with low complexity analog front-end circuitry and integrate energy harvesting (converting body heat into electricity) module with a self-powered mechanism for a printable battery to prolong battery life.
In conclusion, the SmartVista consortium managed to develop all the individual subcomponents (sensors, micro-thermoelectric generator and battery). The consortium designed a system demonstrator, which is flexible and fully functional. This system is tested in the lab as well as on human-body which is now capable of monitoring ECG, respiration and temperature and being able to charge the battery from the body heat using the micro-thermoelectric generators.
