IoT Based Pre-Operative Prehabilitation Program Monitoring Model: Implementation and Preliminary Evaluation

Abstract

Abdominal cancer is one of the most frequent and dangerous cancers in the world, particularly among the elderly. Major surgery is associated with a significant deterioration in quality of life. Physical fitness and level of activity are considered important factors for patients with cancer undergoing major abdominal surgery. One of the main programmes designed to improve the patient's fitness before major surgery is physical exercises (prehabilitation). However, significant numbers of patients undergoing major surgery cannot implement the programs due to limited health service resources, or patients are living in remote locations. This paper discusses a novel IoT concept for precision prehabilitation program monitoring. The solution integrates the traditional 6-week program's follow-up mechanism with the IoT system. This in turn tracks the patient's movement activities anytime anywhere and records the significant movements specific to the program. As a result, both the patients and the health system are relieved from the restricted capacity and associated cost. A wearable sensor was placed on the participant's ankle, and a gateway and the ThingSpeak platform were developed to perform IoT remote monitoring techniques. The key outcome is the visibility of IoT system to support mixed mode prehabilitation program by reducing the barriers and obstacles of existing prehabilitation programs.