Internet-of-Things Acoustic Wearable for Vital Sign Monitoring: Design and Validation

A wireless acoustic wearable system was designed to directly measure wearers' heart and respiratory rates from their chest sounds and record segments concerning chest sounds. These measurements and associated recordings are provided to healthcare providers as a real-time monitor or medical log for later review. The system was validated by healthy volunteers with two gold-standard devices commonly used in healthcare settings. Both gold standard reference devices are United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared and CE-marked. Twenty-six adult volunteers between the ages of 21 and 80 were recruited. The device achieved an accuracy of ± 2.8 beats per minute (BPM) for heart rate measurement against a heart rate measurement reference of ± 3 BPM accuracy. Compared with respiratory rate measurement reference with ± 1 breath per minute (BRPM) accuracy, the devices achieved ± 0.7 BRPM accuracy. Furthermore, the usability survey result of 17 healthcare professionals and 28 lay users showed that both healthcare professionals (HCPs) and lay users could operate the system without guidance. 88% of the HCPs regarded the system to be helpful as a tool for remote patient monitoring, and 94% of the lay users agreed that the system was easy to use.