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HEALTH-CARE DEVICES USING RADIO FREQUENCY TECHNOLOGY
4.1 INTRODUCTION
In recent times, the health-care market has been growing rapidly in advanced countries. In the United States, the total health-care expenditure was estimated at $2.72 trillion in 2010. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the health-care industry is about 7% [1]. The health-care market includes various sorts of services, appliances, and products. Considerable effort has been made to develop the products associated with the health-care industry. Mobile technology can be incorporated into health-care services and products to innovate conventional medical services and expand opportunities in the health-care market.
Radio frequency (RF) technology is developing in a challenging era during which RF systems will be applied to health care. RF technologies have been used in mobile phones for customer mobile services and in military radar systems. With wireless technology penetrating daily life (e.g., mobile phones and wireless Internet), mobile health-care sensors can be thought of as an application of mobile technology. In this environment, the use of health-care sensors for the remote monitoring of human heartbeat and respiration rates is gaining attention [2–6]. Most commercial health-care sensors have to be directly attached to the human body. It is definitely inconvenient to carry the device daily. Remote monitoring of human cardiac and respiratory activities through a mobile ...
