Home health monitoring

Due to the general aging of society, increasing national medical expenditures are becoming a serious problem. It is thus highly desirable to reduce the need for medical services by maintaining the population in good health. Intensive monitoring of health parameters will become a necessary means for attaining good health at all times. Technology for health monitoring, however, is only recently being developed. A concept of home health monitoring is proposed by which health parameters are automatically monitored at home without disturbing daily activities. There are many attempts being made to realize this concept. This article reviews these attempts at developing home health monitoring techniques, which include monitoring during sleep, via the bath tub or toilet seat, as well as during daily activities. Preliminary studies show that home health monitoring can be achieved even by means of simple sensors and instruments. There are also many possible applications for advanced technologies. Potential future technologies for home health monitoring include automatic blood pressure measurement via the toilet seat, automatic blood sampling with a device mimicking a mosquito, and artificial noses for detecting smells.