Scalable, Cost Effective IoT Based Medical Oxygen Monitoring System for Resource Constrained Hospital Environment

Oxygen therapy is one of the critical treatments employed in epidemics, pandemics, and natural calamities. Recent covid pandemic worldwide witnessed many deaths due to improper management, delayed delivery, and wastage of medical oxygen. Therefore, efficient utilization of available oxygen is very important. To monitor and manage oxygen, several hospitals employ IoT-based systems. Scalability is an essential feature in such monitoring systems in order to cater to the needs of a sudden surge in the number of patients requiring oxygen. The most commonly employed technique to monitor and manage an oxygen cylinder uses a pressure sensor where scaling up is an issue. Therefore, in this paper, a scalable solution that efficiently measures and monitors the available oxygen in the cylinder is proposed. The approach measures oxygen level using a weight sensor module and raises alerts during critical conditions such as low oxygen level and blockage or leakage of oxygen. The proposed system is a cost-effective, plug-and-play system that aids rapid deployment thereby providing timely care to the patients. Also, it does not require any change in the existing infrastructure making it suitable for a resource-constrained environment. The proposed system supports a web-based dashboard and mobile app that can be remotely accessed.