The novel coronavirus COVID-19 has become a worldwide pandemic and research institutes, academia and private sectors are contributing to prevention efforts. NextDrive, together with the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE), the Department of Nursing and the Department of Internal Medicine at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, developed a smart band specifically designed to monitor the heart rates and body temperatures of front-line medical staffs, continuously in real-time. The smart band was officially implemented into the Department of Internal Medicine at National Cheng Kung University Hospital on April 22nd, the solution combines modern technology and healthcare to stay ahead of the curve.
The smart band monitors heart rates and body temperatures of front-line medical staff in real-time. Through unique AI algorithm analysis, it continuously monitors body temperature variations, detects abnormalities and provides timely care for front-line medical staff. Soon, we hope to promote the solution not just to other medical facilities, but also private corporations so they can prevent or contain future epidemic spreads and the company can remain operational.
►National Cheng Kung University Hospital has already introduced
Smart Band Body Temperature Monitoring System
With the support from the Department of Foresight and Innovation Policies and National Cheng Kung University, the collaboration between Nai-Ying Ko, Director and Professor at the School of Nursing, Wen-Chien Ko, Chief of Division of Infectious Diseases, Po-Lin Chen, Associate Professor at Department of Infectious Diseases, Kun-Ta Chuang, Associate Professor at the Department of CSIE, Hung-Yu Kao, Professor at the Department of CSIE and Yu-Chen Shu, Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics, together they formed an “Intelligent Interdisciplinary Epidemic Prevention Team”. They successfully developed a “wearable device for monitoring continuous body surface temperature”, the so-called smart band. In addition to being a product of horizontal integration from National Cheng Kung University CSIE and Medicine faculty resources, the device also joined forces with NextDrive to kick-start wristband communication technology. It utilizes the cloud to store and track live data while providing an invisible defense barrier for front-line medical staff.
NextDrive is an expert in Internet of Things (IoT) communication technology and is the first Taiwanese company to breakthrough into the liberalized Japan electricity market. Throughout the development of the smart band, NextDrive played the role of collecting and uploading real-time data. By utilizing the self-developed IoT gateway to connect to the smart band via Bluetooth®, the gateway acquires and uploads the location, body temperature, heart rate and other physiological data in real-time, of the person wearing the smart band to the cloud’s early warning application system for monitoring, analysis and predetermination of early signs of infection. At the same time, it can also precisely monitor and record persons wearing the smart band having come in contact with one another.
►NextDrive IoT gateway – Cube
Michihiro Konagai, Product Development Director at NextDrive said ”In addition to providing appropriate healthcare during the epidemic, one can combine and utilize interdisciplinary professions and technologies to create and innovate more IoT applications. NextDrive is in the process of readying the solution for the initial deployment and application in Taiwan, followed by Japan and other overseas countries in an effort to curb the spread of epidemic diseases, globally.”
