Zigbee and LoRaWAN Smart HealthCare System Architecture Basics

This use case covers the basics of a Zigbee and LoRaWAN-based smart healthcare system, describing its various elements. It also highlights the advantages and benefits of using LoRaWAN and Zigbee in healthcare.

Introduction

Smart healthcare systems provide care to individuals in remote locations by monitoring their health conditions using various test parameters, such as blood pressure, body temperature, and visual assessments. This empowers doctors to make better, more informed decisions regarding patient treatment.

The rise of smart healthcare has been made possible by the advent of IoT (Internet of Things) based wireless technologies like Zigbee, LoRaWAN, WiFi, Cellular, and WBAN.

Currently, hospitals like Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India; Colchester General Hospital in the UK; Aventura and North Shore University Hospital in the USA; and The First Affiliated Hospital of AHMU in China are already providing IoT-based smart healthcare facilities.

Figure 1: Smart HealthCare System Components

Figure 1 depicts a simple architecture of a LoRaWAN or Zigbee-based smart healthcare system. It comprises five major modules/components:

• Sensor Technology
• Intelligent Network
• Cloud Computing
• Big Data Analysis
• Smart Hospital

Let’s explore each of these components in more detail:

• Sensor Technology: Various types of sensors are implanted on the patient’s body to collect specific information. These sensors wirelessly transmit the collected data to a router/gateway.

• Intelligent Network (IN): The data collected by the sensors is transmitted via an intelligent network to cloud storage. This network is composed of routers, gateways, and base stations, and is often referred to as a WSN (Wireless Sensor Network).

• Cloud Computing: Data collected by sensors is stored in cloud computing-based servers before being analyzed.

• Big Data Analysis: At this stage, the collected data undergoes analysis, which helps in making informed decisions regarding patient treatment.

• Smart Hospital: The analyzed data, along with all results, is used to prepare detailed reports. These reports are then sent to healthcare professionals who can examine them and prescribe appropriate medicines and treatments.