Mobile Application for an Integrated Portable Medical Assistant

Respiratory diseases rank among the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Everyday, healthcare facilities receive a high volume of patients, which must respond effectively, promptly, and appropriately. In such cases, triage plays a crucial role in determining the severity of cases, enabling classification before a comprehensive diagnosis is conducted. To support these processes, technology is advancing systems designed to assist in diagnosis by automating the collection of physiological signals. This article describes the development of a mobile application for a equipment previously built, termed ‘Integrated Portable Medical Assistant’ (IPMA), which is aimed to measure heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation level, and body temperature. The IPMA has an embedded system that controls linear actuators to power on and off the certified medical devices and, through image recognition algorithms, recognize their measured values. To enhance the IPMA, a mobile application is introduced here, which receives real-time measurements and manage a database to handle this information. A pilot test was conducted with volunteers, in which a Post Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) was applied, confirming user’s satisfaction and usability of IMPA. The results so far obtained demonstrate that the IPMA can be used in health services for triage as well as diagnosis of respiratory diseases.