Application of Power Line Communication in Healthcare for ECG and EEG Monitoring
(2013)Abstract
Tele-healthcare is used to deliver health associated
services and information using communications technologies.
Advances in communication network technology have the
potential applications in healthcare industry. Healthcare
industries are focusing on medical care; however urban
communities will gain major focus and benefits because of
advanced communication network technologies. The rural
communities lack communication networks and medical
facilities compared to urban communities because they are
located at far distance and cost of establishment is more. Both
urban and rural areas have Power Lines (PL) which is used to
deliver electricity. This paper proposes a method for Tele-
monitoring
of
Electrocardiogram
(ECG)
and
Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals using pre-established PL
cables for Tele-healthcare application. In our work, ECG is
measured by placing the electrodes based on Einthoven’s
triangle and EEG signals is measured by placing the electrodes
on FP1, FP2 and ear lobe. Measured signals are digitalized
and then transmitted over the single phase PL cable using
Power Line Modem (PLM) to a common monitoring place. In
the receiver, signals are decoded and retrieved back. The ECG
with fixed wave pattern was very useful in studying the effect
of PL noises when compared with EEG which varies randomly
based on the subject activities and does not have a fixed pattern.
From the obtained results, it was observed that ECG, EEG
signals where affected by the PL noise disturbances. Hence,
filtration is required for the received signal to remove the PL
noises. The cost of establishing PL communication system for
Tele-healthcare application was less. Transmission and
reception of ECG, EEG using PL was successful. It can be
concluded that in future PL channel will replace all
communication technologies and will be used in many medical
applications too