An IoT-based Platform for Remote Monitoring of Patients with Heart Failure: an Overview of Integrable Devices

The paper reports a survey of wearable/portable devices on the market and in the scientific literature to support diagnosing patients with chronic heart diseases. As a part of eHealth and Telehealth systems, such devices remotely and discreetly acquire the patient’s data and transmit them to dedicated cloud applications and portals. This activity constitutes the starting point for the subsequent development of the wearable devices and telemedicine platform under study in the SMART CARE project. The acquired parameters, architecture, and main specifications of each analyzed device are discussed, highlighting their strengths and limitations; particular attention was paid to their sensing section, considering the used sensors, electrodes’ typology, as well as their integration inside the device. Besides, the operating modalities and implemented algorithms are argued, as well as the implemented processing approach and architecture of the supporting telemedicine infrastructure. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of discussed wearable/portable devices is introduced, comparing them from the point of view of detected parameters, application body area, performance, availability of wireless connections, etc. In this way, the features, functionalities, and architectures of the devices developed in the SMART CARE project are outlined.