The Queue’s Automated Creation of Doctor’s Calls by Patients in the Hospital with Visualization via the Mobile Application

Abstract

The spread of the COVID-19 virus is challenging society to provide medical care to a growing number of patients in the hospital. It is important to determine the patient from whom an urgent appeal was received earlier and to automate the creation of the calls’ queue. Determining the direction of the sound source, which is the patient’s voice, can be realized using the passive acoustic location method. In this case, it is necessary to place sound sensors in the wards with patients. In such a case, these sensors it is expedient to build in the lighting equipment executed in the shape of Platonic polyhedra. The microcontroller system, located inside such a spatial structure, ensures the transmission of sound to a server computer system. The above system alternately records the receipt of urgent appeals, analyzes the location of the sound source, and sends the relevant data to the doctor’s smartphone. The mobile application visualizes information about the location of the patients who need consultation or help. The proposed solution for intelligent analysis of voice appeals by inpatients may also be useful for post-stroke, post-infarction, and other bedridden patients who are unable to call medical staff otherwise than a voice.