Medical applications of wireless sensor networks – current status and future directions

In recent years a significant development of BASN (Body AreaSensor Networks) as a special subclass of WSN (Wireless SensorNetworks) has emerged. These networks have enabled a rapiddevelopment of telemedicine systems, which provide remote monitoringof patients and their vital parameters. The article givesa short overview of the BASN networks. Furthermore, a generalsystem architecture of telemedicine systems is proposed. The proposedarchitecture includes a local sensory area, a communicationnetwork area and an institutional network area. It also providesthe security and privacy of patient-related data. Furthermore, thearticle surveys some existing telemedicine systems. Finally, somecurrent problems are explained and the directions for the futuredevelopment of the telemedicine systems are given.