Technology Empowered Healthcare Response in Pandemics: An IoT-based Covid-19 Test and Isolate System

Detect and isolate was a common strategy that was employed to ensure that the spread of the Covid-19 virus is contained. However, in low-and-middle income countries like Rwanda, upon isolation, there was lack of reliable means for continued real time monitoring of patients' condition. Furthermore, for public screening, most of the technologies that were deployed e.g., at entrances to hospitals and schools had no capability to relay information to authorities for further action. This work presents a low cost IoT-based vital signs monitoring system that can be deployed either in crowded environments or in private homes for real time monitoring of Covid-19 related vital signs. The developed system consists of a display module (i.e., 0.96OLED_4P) for displaying measured parameters, including pulse rate, oxygen saturation and temperature. The Arduino ATMEGA328P-PU is used as the central processing unit and the SIM800L GSM module is included to facilitate emergency level communication. The system was verified and tested on 392 human test subjects. The functionality of the system was compared to the commercially available Wellue FS20F Bluetooth Finger Oximeter. The results show that the developed system is able to achieve the same level of accuracy as commercially available devices. The estimated total cost of the hardware components is USD 61.5. This system has potential to ensure a wider technology deployment to detect suspected cases and monitor Covid-19 patients, especially in low-and-middle income countries. The kit can also be used to monitor other noncommunicable disease that share the same symptoms as Covid-19.