Trodden Lanes or New Paths: Ballisto- and Seismocardiography Till Now.

Ballisto- and seismocardiography (BCG/SCG) are methods of studying blood circulation and cardiac function by using the vibration measurements at the body surface, e.g. via accelerometers. The aim of this work is to show the current relevance of BCG/SCG for the target medical diagnostics. To reach this goal and to examine the relevance, an overall search for all BCG and SCG articles in the databases PubMed and IEEEXplore was first carried out ("ballistocardiography OR seismocardiography") for the years till 2019. The results of this literature study show, overall 425 papers for the years from 2003 till 2019, with BCG (317) as significantly stronger represented than SCG (120). The distribution of the included subjects shows that a smaller group (n<=10) of mostly healthy people is more common. Last but not least, we examined which sensors have been included in the articles since 2003, with the result that accelerometers, whether as self-developed prototypes or installed in smartphones, were used in slightly less than 50% of the articles found. The differences in the numbers of publications between BCG and SCG may also be due to the distinction's complexity between BCG, which is more intuitive, and SCG. Looking at the number and distribution of included subjects, it is noticeable that this is rather low and primarily healthy subjects are used. However, the publication increase indicates that we are at a threshold in this topic and actual benefit to medicine.

A Structured Measurement of Highly Synchronous Real-Time Ballistocardiography Signal Data of Heart Failure Patients.

Ballistocardiography (BCG) has gained more attention due to the fundamental goal of medical intervention in diagnostics and follow-up. BCG is particularly suitable for the study of heart failure, which a recent study has shown. The results of this working group shall be validated and reproduced with another study trial. Therefore, acceleration sensor prototypes will be placed on various parts of the patient's body and be connected to a computer unit, which allows a high data quality and high signal resolution. A temporal shift of only 20 ns ensures real-time measurement of BCG parameters. The reference measurement will be done with a 12-channel ECG. The study will include patients with heart failure. All conducted tests take place as part of the diagnostic-therapeutic routine. The only change in the procedure concerns the additional equipment with the measuring sensors. The results will be the validation of the data from the other working group, as well as the information about the choice of sensors and clock frequency, the measuring points and the needed features for early detection of heart failure in BCG signals.

Wireless Sensor Network for Fall Prevention on Geriatric Wards: A Report.

With regard to the growing number of older adults, it needs smart solutions for fall prevention. Especially at geriatric institutions, the risk of falling is very high and frequently leads to injuries, resulting in serious consequences. We present the Inexpensive Node for Bed Exit Detection (INBED), a comprehensive signaling system for fall prevention. The INBED system is based on a wireless sensor network infrastructure via IEEE802.15.4 and highly-specialized open hardware in-house developed wearable. The device, which will be attached to the patients, can detect several types of movement. Occurring events are forwarded to the nursing staff immediately by using the self-organizing and scalable network including wide area network integration. The system can help to relieve the staff while the personal freedom of movement and privacy of patients is increased. With this development, the energy-efficient, simple and intuitive mechanisms of proximity communication can be combined with broadband benefits.

First Feasibility Analysis of Ballistocardiography on a Passenger Flight.

The project SCARAB2 (Scalable, Robust and Adaptive on Board Ballistocardiography) aims to use Ballistocardiography (BCG) to monitor flight passengers. In order to show that recorded BCG data from flights give evaluable information even in the noisy environment of an airplane, we monitored a heart-healthy passenger using BCG. Furthermore, we show that there can be a conclusion to heart activities from the recorded ballistocardiogram by comparing the data to a concurrently recorded electrocardiogram (ECG).

Usage of Accelerometers in the Medical Field of Application and Their Clinical Integration.

We conducted a literature review on the use of accelerometers in medical context, on Pubmed and IEEEXplore. This includes 440 relevant articles. The subsequently identified publications were classified with regard to the medical context (prevention, diagnostics, therapy) as well as according to medical-informatics field of application, e.g. activity-tracking, fall prevention/detection and gait analysis. Furthermore, we analyzed their clinical integration or potential for the clinical usage, including both the technical integration into the clinical structures and respective claims and requirements, e.g. privacy or hygiene. This analysis shows five categories ("without indication" to "concrete implementation"). In 90% no statement was made on clinical integration. Only two articles could be found with concrete implementations, but these descriptions are limited to a more conceptual technical side. This poor situation in final clinical integration has to change in the future, because only by the premise "from workbench to bedside" the medical benefit is given.

Advantages of Modular Hybrid Network Communication on Clinical Wards.

The ever-increasing flood of information, especially in the medical-clinical field, inter alia due to the increase of data-intensive mobile/wearable devices, is one of the biggest challenges of medical informatics. In this work different possibilities of the integration of wearable devices on the example of the development of a fall prevention system are presented and classified. We started with a commercial off-the-shelf one-on-one system (Shimmer/Arduino) using a Bluetooth connection, integrated via nurse call system as Human-Machine-Interface. During the evaluation of the system we mentioned several new requirements and optimization possibilities. Thus, we adjusted the hardware-software-system; the near-field communication was realized by IEEE802.15.4, we replaced commercial off-the-shelf devices with highly-specialized open hardware in-house developments and we transferred the nurse call integration by setting up our own network and integrating this into an existing (wireless) local area network. With this development, the energy-efficient, simple and intuitive mechanisms of proximity communication via IEEE802.15.4 can be combined with the benefits broadband functionalities, e.g. of Wi-Fi, with both worlds benefits and the compensation of some disadvantages.