A semi autonomous control and monitoring system for bed sores prevention

Abstract

Bed sores, a common problem among immobile patients occur as skin to bed surface temperature increases in patient lying on same posture for prolonged period. If left untreated, the skin can break open and become infected. This paper introduces a semi autonomous system based on control and monitoring of patient's skin to bed surface temperature for bed sores prevention. The developed system consists of bed surface implanted temperature sensors interfaced with a microcontroller for sensing the temperature change in patient's skin to bed surface. Based on the amplified signal from temperature sensors, the microcontroller makes appropriate decision on the mode (heater / cooler) and speed of the fan module for blowing warm / cool air to the bed surface. Furthermore, an alarm module was implemented to alert the nurse to reposition the patient only if patient's skin to bed surface temperature exceeds a predefined threshold thereby saving human resources. Evaluation tests were completed and adequate results were obtained.