Electronic Devices That Identify Individuals with Fever in Crowded Places: A Prototype

Abstract

Most epidemiological surveillance systems for severe infections with epidemic potential are based on accumulated symptomatic cases in defined geographical areas. Eventually, all cases have to be clinically verified to confirm an outbreak. These patients will present high fever at the early stages of the disease. Here, we introduce a non-invasive low-cost electronic device (bracelet) that measures and reports 24/7, year-round information on the temperature, geographical location, and identification of the subject using the device. The data receiver can be installed in a tower (ground) or a drone (air) in densely populated or remote areas. The prototype was made with low-cost electronic components, and it was tested indoors and outdoors. The prototype shows efficient ground and air connectivity. This electronic device will allow health professionals to monitor the prevalence of fever in a geographical area and to reduce the time span between the presentation of the first cases of a potential outbreak and their medical evaluation by giving an early warning. Field tests of the device, programs, and technical diagrams of the prototype are available as Supplementary Materials.

Context-Specific Challenges, Opportunities, and Ethics of Drones for Healthcare Delivery in the Eyes of Program Managers and Field Staff: A Multi-Site Qualitative Study

“…The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, into health systems represents an area of massive potential [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Half the world population lives in rural areas, defined in diverse ways across countries, but characterized by non-urban density population [19,20].…”

Real Time Monitoring of Children, and Adults with Mental Disabilities Using a Low-Cost Non-Invasive Electronic Device

“…The tables describing the data for the test is the information transmitted between the different modules. This electronic application derives from a previous work from this group Polanco et al [5], where the transmission by wireless radio-frequency was extensively verified through an HC-11 434 MHz Wireless Serial Port (), baud rate 9600 equivalent to range 200 m, and frequency band 434 M. In that previous work, it was discussed and proved the efficiency and integrity of this type of transmission. In this improved version, the number of fields transferred between modules represents a fifth of the data transferred in the previous work.…”

“…Replacing the coordinates of the GPS tracker in the “slave” module by the code of the physical location of the ‘master,’ reduced from 30 to 2 bytes the amount of data transferred. This increased the data transmission gain and expanded the range of the signal compared to our previous work Polanco et al [5], where it was used for wireless transmission by radio-frequency an HC-11 434 MHz Wireless Serial Port (), baud rate 9600 equivalent to range 200 m, and frequency band 434 M.…”

“…Transmitter mode: the subject’s identity data is sent to the master module only in case the subject is searched (Table 1 (A,B)). Figure taken and adapted from Polanco et al [5]. …”

“…Transmitter mode: people found by the slave modules sent to the supervisor module and the missing people file sent to the slave modules (Table 2 (B,C)). Figure taken and adapted from Polanco et al [5]. …”