Condition monitoring of human body: Indian Institute of Science to work on special body monitors for health problems

2011

Syed Akbar

Hyderabad, March 3: Imagine being surrounded by a team of expert doctors round-the-clock, giving medical tips whenever something goes wrong with the body function. This will become a reality soon if the researchers at the Indian Institute of Science have their way.

A team of researchers led by Prof KPJ Reddy of the department of aerospace engineering, IISc, is working on "condition monitoring" of the human body with mounted sensors. The sensors will monitor the body 24 hours a day anywhere in the world, keeping the patient always within the "sight" of expert doctors.

The mounted sensors will pass on information to the main computer server about any defect in the functioning of the body including irregular heart beat and, high or low blood sugar levels. Doctors monitoring the computer will give alerts to the patient about the steps he or she should take, besides prescribing medicines.

"In this venture IBM had agreed to provide software for uplinking of the data from the sensors and also to link it with the doctors for appropriate medical advise/treatment to the patient," Prof KPJ Reddy said.

Stating that the team at present does not have a medical microchip, Prof Reddy said "we are trying to develop it with one group in a US university". Once the microchip is in place, the team will approach the Indian Council of Medical Research for formal approval for use on human beings.

The embedded chip will be of great boon to people with cardiac, kidney, liver, lung and neurological problems, whenever they are out of their city on travel. For diabetics, the technology will provide real time data on the blood sugar levels, helping them maintain normal levels by change in diet or timely medication.