ABSTRACT
The novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) is a pandemic of unimaginable proportion and magnitude that is posing a great challenge worldwide to the medical industry in the 21st century. It has completely changed the texture of life to a greater extent. The increasing number of victims succumbing to the disease has created an indelible fear in the minds of the people who are afraid to access even the basic healthcare facilities. This paper deals with the Automatic Health Machine (AHM) which uses IoT and Artificial Intelligence technologies to help users access medical facilities during a pandemic and medical emergency mostly in rural and urban areas. The AHM provides complete virtual health checkup, connects with the doctor or specialist online and books appointments for the swab test or ambulance in case of emergency based on the patient's condition, dispenses the swab test or emergency medicines and electronic prescription to patients for later reference. The services of the AHM are accessible to all individuals using 'Smart Health Card'. According to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG3) proposed by the United Nations, the AHM ensures the wellbeing of all ages in society and increases the survival rate during unprecedented times like a pandemic/epidemic. We collaborated with industries and hospitals to understand healthcare/patients' requirements considering pandemic and post-pandemic. We conducted virtual workshops with the COVID-recovered patients and frontline nurses and doctors. As an overall outcome, the healthcare professionals feel the system can be adopted in an area where medical facility is not available immediately. Thus, our work has led to a patent being published in India and USA. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This paper deals with the modalities of the Smart Automated Health Machine (AHM) using Internet of Things (IoT), a user-friendly health machine with an interactive graphical user interface for medical necessities. It is a virtual health check-up/self-screening/test system, aimed at being the first point of contact for patient screening, to monitor heart rate, blood pressure, ECG, oxygen saturation, and visual acuity of patients. In case of emergency, a doctor will be available online through a video call, based on the severity of patients' conditions, a call can be placed by a doctor to book an ambulance van or ambulance bike (based on the conditions). If a patient is unconscious, a direct call can be placed by any bystander or patient's carer to book an ambulance. In non-emergency cases, medical appointments can be booked - the system will also dispense medicines based on the health conditions and/or doctor's electronic prescription which can be selected among the list of available medicines. Each individual will be provided with a "smart health card", which will keep a record of patients' personal details, health conditions, prescriptions, and amount of tablets consumed. The AHM will provide all the necessary information, keep a record of different medical problems in different regions and different necessities required to be adopted. The system can also be called as "Self Healthcare Service (SHS)"or "Self Healthcare Units (SHU)"-the initiatives are part of sustainable development goals (SDG-3) proposed by United Nations.We conducted a pilot evaluation with the patients, nurses and doctors. As an overall outcome, the practitioners feel the system can be adopted in an area where medical facility is not available immediately. Adopting this system in such regions not only help in medical emergencies/epidemic/pandemic such as COVID, it also increases the percentage of survival. The system can also be adopted in hospitals, pharmacies, schools, public places like bus/train stations, airports, markets or any commercial areas, zones prone to accidents in rural and urban areas and other places that can be quite useful and helpful to the public. © 2020 IEEE.