Development of a portable ultrasound imaging system with wireless patient monitor

Abstract

[한글]

[영문]With recent improvement on standards of living and advancement of medical and science technology, development and manufacture of u-healthcare system for diagnosis at remote places other than hospitals such as home, offices and emergency areas are on the boil. U-healthcare system developed in this study will receive bio-signals and ultrasound images of the patient from various remote sites other than hospitals and use the data to provide high quality medical services. In this study, we have developed ultrasound imaging based portable compact diagnosis system which is connected with a wireless bio-signal module to be used at various environment such as emergency medical sites, etc. For this, a compact ultrasound imaging device, a smart probe and a wireless bio-signal module have been developed and integrated. Small channel/high resolution ultrasound image algorithm, such as periodic sparse array method and extended aperture method, has been realized to make a compact ultrasound imaging device. Also the size of the ultrasound imaging device has been minimized by integrating a beamformer processor and an efficient back-end processor into one FPGA. Especially the developed beamformer can process 32 channels with one chip, including TxPG and quadrature demodulation as well as the RxBF and also a hardware that has been realized with extended aperture method has been inserted into a smart probe to minimize the size of the ultrasound imaging device. And a power with battery which is re-chargeable has also been developed with the basic premise that the u-healthcare should be portable. Bio-signal module that can measure and send the ECG, SpO2, blood pressure and temperature wirelessly to the ultrasound imaging device has been developed. And the server/client system of the hospital receiving, storing or re-sending the data from the ultrasound imaging device has been realized. The exterior has been designed considering the user's portability and convenience and these details have been combined into developing u-healthcare system. Developed u-healthcare system not only improves the bio-signal and ultrasound imaging technology for patient-focused diagnostics but also provides opportunity to improve application technology for emergency medical, overall improvement of ultrasound imaging device and an innovative industrial competitiveness internationally. U-healthcare system developed through this study is a new product combining imaging devices and bio-signal module and will introduce a new place to the market with material contribution to national economic growth.