Development of Smart Health Screening System for Rural Communities in the Philippines

Abstract

The Philippines, surveyed as part of the 23 chosen countries worldwide, is producing 80% of global mortality burden due to chronic diseases and 50% full disorder burden because of Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) throughout the world. To prevent the growth of diseases, and in certain cases to prevent worsening of health conditions, screening is strongly recommended which can identify the symptoms while at their early stages. There are some laboratory tests that a patient can undergo. If it is determined that a disease has emerged, further examinations will also be done to confirm the diagnosis. However, for people in rural areas, it is just additional burden because of the cost and time consumption. The aim of smart health screening system is to ease and enhance the quality of life in rural communities. In this paper, a system was introduced that screens specific health parameters related to cardiovascular system of an individual. The developed mobile application can monitor the patient’s health parameters using commercially available medical devices and sensors integrated to the mobile application. The parameters include: Blood Pressure (BP), Heart Rate (HR), Oxygen Saturation (SPO2), Body Mass Index (BMI), Blood Glucose (BG), Cholesterol Level (Chol), and Uric Acid Level. An offline database of the gathered data was established for maintaining data privacy and for the admins to have access in medical records anytime.