2011 International Conference on Computer Science and Network Technology

Wireless Sensor Networl(s for In-Home Healthcare:

Issues, Trend and Prospect

Zhao Wei Ning Shangpin

Industrial Informatics Department Beijing HangXing Technologies Co., Ltd
Shenyang Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Beijing, China
Sciences e-mail:ningshangpin@bjhangxing.com
Shenyang, China LiuLu
e-mail: zwneu@sia.cn Shenyang Jianzhu University
Shenyang, China
e-mail:liulu@sjzu.edu.cn

Abstract-As the world's population ages, those suffering from This trend is global, so the worldwide population over age
diseases of the elderly will increase. The health care expenditures 65 is expected to more than double from 357 million in 1990 to
will increase rapidly and become non-affordable for the 761 million in 2025. Taking the US for example, overall
governments around the world. New technology and new model health care expenditures in the United States reached $1.8
for patient healthcare must be found to relieve the pressure of trillion in 2004 with almost 45 million Americans uninsured. In
finance and society. In-home pervasive networks may assist
addition, a recent study found that almost one third of U.S.
residents by providing memory enhancement, control of home
adults, most of whom held full-time jobs, were serving as
appliances, medical data lookup, and emergency communication.
informal caregivers - mostly to an elderly parent. It is projected
Cooperation between wireless sensor networks and existing
that health care expenditures will reach almost 20% of the
consumer electronic infrastructures can assist in the areas of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in less then 10 years,
health care and patient monitoring. This will improve the quality
threatening the wellbeing of the entire economy. All these
of life of patients, provide early detection for certain ailments,
and improve doctor-patient efficiency. In this paper we detail
statistics suggest that health care needs a major shift toward
some basal concepts of wireless sensor network first. The possible
more scalable and more anordable solutions. Restructuring
security issues, privacy issues and legal issues are argued at the health care systems toward proactive managing of wellness
second part. The prospect and function of next generation smart rather than illness, and focusing on prevention and early
homecare based on wireless senor network will be shown at the detection of disease emerge as the answers to these problems,
last part. as in [3].

In-home and nursing-home pervasive networks may assist

Keywords--Wire/ess sensor network; medical; issues; prospect;
residents and their caregivers by providing continuous medical
monitoring, memory enhancement, control of home
1. INTRODUCTION
appliances, medical data access, and emergency
In current world, an obvious trend is appearing in almost communication. Now, technology is advancing to meet the
every country: the population ages and the number of people challenge with medical devices in the home that quickly and
requiring medical treatment rapidly increases. According to the easily link to electronic health provider records. In all of these
U.S. Bureau of the Census, the number of adults age 65-84 is new technology and equipments, wearable systems for
expected to double from 35 million to nearly 70 million by continuous health monitoring has shown its irreplaceable
2025 when the youngest Baby Boomers retire, as in [1]. advantage. Though wearable systems are complicated and have
many critical challenges in common, such as battery powered
requiring low power design and power management, size and
weight shall be minimized as far as reasonable, smart sensors
which are small enough and suitable for body signal measure,
1M/,+-
etc. In all these aspects mentioned above, they can be put under
wireless sensor network fields almost.

A. SOME CONCEPT OF WSN

�. A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a wireless network
'. 1
consisting of spatially distributed autonomous devices that use
sensors to monitor physical or environmental conditions. These
autonomous devices, or nodes, combine with routers and a
Figure l. The U.S. population over 65 is about to rapidly accelerate gateway to create a typical WSN system. The distributed

978-1-4577-1587-7111/$26.00 ©20111EEE 970 December 24-26, 2011

measurement nodes communicate wirelessly to a central
gateway, which provides a connection to the wired world
where you can collect, process, analyze, and present your
measurement data. To extend distance and reliability in a
wireless sensor network, you can use routers to gain an
additional communication link between end nodes and the
gateway.
In a common WSN architecture, the measurement nodes
are deployed to acquire measurements such as temperature,
voltage, or even dissolved oxygen. The nodes are part of a
wireless network administered by the gateway, which governs
network aspects such as client authentication and data security.
The gateway collects the measurement data from each node
and sends it over a wired connection, typically Ethernet, to a
host controller.
Often in WSN applications, three years of battery life is a
requirement, so many of the WSN systems today are based on
ZigBee or IEEE 802.15.4 protocols due to their low-power
consumption. The IEEE 802.15.4 protocol defines the Physical
and Medium Access Control layers in the networking model,
providing communication in the 868 to 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz
ISM bands, and data rates up to 250 kb/s. ZigBee builds on the
802.15.4 layers to provide security, reliability through mesh
networking topologies, and interoperability with other devices
and standards. ZigBee also allows user-defined application
objects, or profiles, which provide customization and flexibility
within the protocol, as in [9].
Several network topologies are often used to coordinate the
WSN gateway, end nodes, and router nodes. Router nodes are
similar to end nodes in that they can acquire measurement data,
but you also can use them to pass along measurement data
from other nodes. The first, and most basic, is the star topology,
in which each node maintains a single, direct communication
path with the gateway. This topology is simple but restricts the
overall distance that your network can achieve.
To increase the distance a network can cover, you can
implement a cluster, or tree, topology. In this more complex
architecture, each node still maintains a single communication
path to the gateway but can use other nodes to route its data
along that path. This topology suffers from a problem, however.
If a router node goes down, all the nodes that depend on that
router node also lose their communication paths to the gateway.
The mesh network topology remedies this issue by using
redundant communication paths to increase system reliability.
In a mesh network, nodes maintain multiple communication
paths back to the gateway, so that if one router node goes down,
the network automatically reroutes the data through a different
path. The mesh topology, while very reliable, does suffer from
an increase in network latency because data must make
multiple hops before arriving at the gateway, as in [8]
IT. WSN IN MEDICAL APPLICATION
In the past, there is a wide applied space for this promising
industry. With the development of modern technology, the
WSN will have a profound influence on ares of medical
practice.
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With its advanced predominance such as low price,
convenience, speediness and instant, wireless sensor network
have a wide usage in applications of medical researching, ICU
rooms and daily care, thus made it a hot spot in medical area.
For example, placed on the body of patient, mini sensor can
have the remote detect of physical parameters such as blood
pressure, heart beat, and fmally collect all these information to
the monitoring room to analyze, process and feedback. Besides,
it is very helpful for doctors to have a clear knowledge about
their patients by investigating data in the electric database.
Above all, the WSN technology provides a brand new method
for medical supervision in the future.
A. Important Issues
Though WSN in medical application has lots of
irreplaceable and particular advantages, the main issues of it
are obvious, which can be divided into three categories:
• Security Issues
Privacy Issues
•
• Legal Issues
Security Issues: Security IS an inseparable part of any
system. Different people have defined security in different
ways. Wikipedia states that security is the condition of
being protected against danger or loss. In a general sense,
security is a concept similar to the safety of the system as
a whole. The US Department of Commerce site defmes
security as a condition that results from the establishment and
maintenance of protective measures that ensure a state of
inviolability from hostile acts or influences.
Because of the nature of wireless communications, resource
limitation on sensor nodes, size and density of the networks,
unknown topology prior to deployment, and high risk of
physical attacks to unattended sensors, it is a challenge to
provide security in WSNs, as in [4]. The ultimate security
requirement is to provide confidentiality, integrity, authenticity,
and availability of all messages in the presence of resourceful
adversaries. To provide secure communications for the WSNs,
all messages have to be encrypted and authenticated. Security
attacks on information flow can be widespread. Modification
of information is possible because of the nature of the wireless
channels and uncontrolled node environments. An opponent
can use natural impairments to modifY information and also
render the information unavailable. Security requirements in
WSNs are similar to those of wireless ad hoc networks due to
their similarities.
Privacy Issues: Sensor networks are tools for collecting
information, and an adversary can gain access to sensitive
information either by accessing stored sensor data or by
querying or eavesdropping on the network. Adversaries can use
even seemingly innocuous data to derive sensitive information
if they know how to correlate multiple sensor inputs, as in [5].
Sensor networks aggravate the privacy problem because
they make large volumes of information easily available
through remote access. Hence, adversaries need not be
physically present to maintain surveillance. They can gather
information in a low-risk, anonymous manner. Remote access
also allows a single adversary to monitor multiple sites more informed diagnoses. Eventually, the analyzing, diagnosis,
simu Itaneously. treatment process may also be semi-automated, so a human
physician can be assisted by an "electronic physician." , as in
Privacy has been always a concern in wireless sensor
[2]
networks with regard to healthcare applications. Sending
data out from a patient through wireless media can pose serious Healthcare patients benefit from improved health as a
threats to the privacy of an individual. Concerns regarding result of faster diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Other
privacy have been raised by some authors. They have quality-of-life issues, such as privacy, dignity, and convenience,
emphasized that if the issues associated with privacy are not are supported and enhanced by the ability to provide services in
honestly debated in a reasoned and open ways there is a the patient's own home. Family members and the smart
risk that there will be a public backlash which will result in homecare network itself become part of the healthcare team.
mistrust and consequently the technology will not be used Finally, memory aids and other patient-assistance services can
for the many valuable applications where it can provide restore some lost independence, while preserving safety.
significant benefits. Whether the data are obtained with the
There are three broad health monitoring applications that
consent of the person or without it due to the need by the
include Chronic Disease Monitoring, Personal Wellness
system (for example emergency data from a patient),
Monitoring, and Personal Fitness, where wireless sensor
misuse or privacy concerns may restrict people from taking
network will play a significant role
advantage of the full benefits from the system, as in [6].
--Chronic Disease Monitoring: Chronic diseases contribute
Legal Issues: As the data in wireless sensor networks for
to 75 percent of medical care costs in the US. They encompass
healthcare systems will be sent to different people at
a wide range of health problems including diabetes, asthma,
different places, legal issues arise sharply. The most natural
heart diseases and sleep disorders. Tn many cases, chronic
question is 'who will have the responsibilities and
diseases require some kind of health monitoring, especially in
liabilities for the data collected from a person'. Some other
the later stages of the disease progression.
most obvious questions that may arise are, who will be
responsible to enforce regulations and who can have access --Personal Wellness Monitoring: Personal Wellness
rights to use these data? In the case of misuse who will be Monitoring is an area that will first focus on individuals age 65
accountable? The data generated from a person could be used or older. As an initial focus, the monitoring concerns the
for illegal purposes. This may lead to problems to the person's activity and safety. As this market develops, adoption
person whose data are being opened to other people. of this technology will fmd applications for the general
He/she may subject to blackmailing and other problems in population.
life such as discrimination. A person who's certain secrets
-- Personal Fitness Monitoring: This use case focuses on
about healthcare are known may face discrimination at work.
tracking the fitness level or progress made by an individual. A
As discussed earlier, one major question is about onus of the
number of parameters that the individual wishes to monitor are
healthcare data generated from a person. Who will take the
recorded as the individual performs his/her workout routine.
responsibility for it? Normally personal medical data are
For example, while running on a treadmill, the individual
sent to the doctor directly or to the hospital database. It
monitors his/her heart rate, temperature and blood oxygen level.
may be possible that due to negligence of the doctor or the
This information, obtained from medical sensors that are worn
person in charge of the database, it might fall into the wrong
by the individual, are securely streamed to a gateway or a
hands. Tn such a case can the doctor be prosecuted? The
collection data unit and displayed on the treadmill's console in
question of who owns the data' is particularly troublesome
real time along with other performance information provided
and unsettled. It has been the object of recurrent, highly
by the treadmill. Additionally, the gateway sends the
publicized lawsuits and congressional inquiries.
information to a database server for record keeping. Note that
the information need not be sent in real time, but may be
B. Next Generation Smart Homecare
collected and transmitted after the workout routine ends. After
Wireless sensor network extends healthcare from the the workout, the individual can review a history of these
traditional clinic or hospital setting to the patient's home, parameters to track and analyze their fitness level, as in [7].
enabling telecare without the prohibitive costs of retrofitting
existing dwellings.
m. CONCLUSION
Smart homecare benefits both the healthcare providers and
Wireless sensor networks for home healthcare enable vital
their patients. For the providers, an automatic monitoring
sign monitoring of a patient by the medical staff or doctors
system is valuable for many reasons. Firstly, it frees human
over a remote location. Developments in the field of medical
labor from 2417 physical monitoring, reducing labor cost and
science are being made to provide for the continuous patient
increasing efficiency. Secondly, wearable sensor devices can
oriented monitoring, home monitoring for chronic and elderly
sense even small changes in vital signals that humans might
patients, activation of alarm and history maintenance by using
overlook, for example, heart rate and blood oxygen levels.
inexpensive and handy equipment. Though many issues must
Quickly notifYing doctors of these changes may save human
be faced in its development, wireless sensor networks is
lives. Thirdly, the data collected from the wireless sensor
becoming increasingly prevalent in medical application. All
network can be stored and integrated into a comprehensive
kinds of products based on it have appeared in our life and it
health record of each patient, which helps physicians make

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has been a necessary part for home healthcare ,especially for [4] Zoran S. Bojkovic, Bojan M. Bakmaz, and Miodrag R. Bakmaz,
"Security Issues in Wireless Sensor Networks," INTERNATIONAL
elder, healing and chronic patient.
JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS, Issue I, Volume 2, 2008,pp.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 106-114.
[5] Moshaddique Al Ameen and Kyung-sup Kwak, "Social Issues in
This work was supported by National High Technology Wireless Sensor Networks with Healthcare Perspective," The
Research and Development Program of China (863) International Arab Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 8, No. 1,
January 2011, pp.52-58.
[6] Stankovic, Stanislava, "Medical Applications Based on Wireless Sensor
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