Importance

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Abstract

A system for long-term remote medical monitoring is especially suitable for the medical supervision of astronauts onboard a space station. The system includes at least one autonomous sensor unit (SU) with a sensor (1) and transmit/receive electrodes (2) connected to a microchip (3) and mounted on a carrier (4) in the form of an adhesive bandage that can easily be applied to the skin of the subject astronaut (11). The system further includes a body transceiver (10) that is worn on the body of the subject and acts as a centralized transmitting and receiving unit, and a portable data logger (12). Medical data such as the pulse rate and the like, as well as environmental data such as the ambient surrounding air temperature, are sensed by respective allocated sensor units (SU) and transmitted from the sensor units as electrical signals via the skin and other body tissues of the subject (11) to the body transceiver (10). From the body transceiver (10), the data signals are further transmitted, for example by a radio or infrared transmission, to the data logger (12), where the data can be recorded, displayed, processed, or further transmitted via a satellite (14) to a base station (13) or a ground-based facility such as a hospital (15). Polling signals are also transmitted from the body transceiver (10) to the sensor units (SU) in a wireless manner through the skin and other body tissues of the subject.

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First Claim