HARNESSING THE POWER OF IOT AND FOG COMPUTING FOR ENHANCED PATIENT MONITORING IN CRITICAL CARE UNITS

In the realm of critical care, the need for precise and continuous monitoring of patients is paramount. This paper explores the development of an advanced system that leverages the capabilities of the Internet of Things (IoT) to facilitate the meticulous tracking of a patients vital signs in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The system is engineered to minimize the potential for human error by providing uninterrupted monitoring of various health indicators such as body temperature, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), heart rate, blood pressure, and electrocardiogram (ECG) readings. Additionally, it can analyze patient fluids for glucose, lactate, blood circulation, red and white blood cell counts, as well as calcium and potassium levels. The system employs fog nodes as a means to store and process the data collected from patients. These nodes generate comprehensive health reports based on the collected data and store them in a cloud-based platform. This setup allows healthcare professionals, including doctors and ICU staff, to access real-time patient data and reports from any location at any time. The system is designed to alert the medical team in case of any detected anomalies in the patients health parameters. This paper also provides a comparative analysis of previous research conducted on smart IoT devices used in ICU patient monitoring systems, highlighting the unique advantages offered by the proposed system. The paper concludes with a discussion on potential future enhancements, such as bolstering data security measures and incorporating machine learning techniques for improved system performance.