Internet of Things versus Covid-19: Integrated Low-Cost Proposal for Oximetry Collection and Data Availability in Cloud for Strategic Management of Population in Isolation

Abstract

One of the challenges of countermeasures that governments around the world face to serve society is the monitoring of cases and the overcrowding of beds, in addition to the exposure of health professionals to the COVID-19. In a patient-focused analysis, monitoring that becomes necessary is oximetry. This research demonstrates an integrated solution for: collecting population oximetry data, concentrating collections in a cloud computing structure and generating epidemiological data, and a low-cost solution (several nations are in serious economic difficulties). The research had the following steps: to develop an oximetry device with a low cost market microprocessor, to integrate the oximeter developed with a web platform (to minimize the contact between healthy population, doctors and infected), to carry out real samples collections with the prototype and a recognized brand in the market (in order to compare the quality of the response obtained). There were 17 days of measurements, 3 times a day, in 3 patients, in Belo Horizonte city (3,000,000 inhabitants). An oximeter with the ESP32 microprocessor was developed due to its processing capacity. In the data collection, it forwards the measurements to a web structure, hosted on Cloud with a tab with a heat map of patient concentration. During the comparisons, the rates of: Beat per Minute (BPM) and SpO2 were verified. It was found 0% variation in oximetry measurements and a maximum variation of 7.25% BPM. The prototype is 60% cheaper than the competitor (in Brazilian Reais), adding population management capabilities in municipalities with low purchasing power.