«AMON» is a wearable medical monitoring and alert system targeting high-risk cardiac respiratory patients. The main objective of the AMON project was to research, develop and validate an advanced, wearable personal health system to monitor and evaluate human vital signs using advanced bio-sensors. The scientific and technological challenge was to design a wearable monitoring device that will be small, dependable and contain the necessary data for an impending medical emergency.

The system developed includes continuous collection and evaluation of these vital signs, intelligent multi-parameter medical emergency detection and transmission of the data to a remote telemedicine centre, for further analysis and emergency care using a GSM/UMTS cellular infrastructure. The development & testing of the on-line Telemedicine Centre was conducted in parallel, including system testing, validation & assessment by end-users in hospitals around Europe. Using «AMON», patients who are not confined to hospital (including the high risk and elderly) are able to continuously monitor and analyse their vital signs, providing care at the point and time of need, increasing freedom of movement and enhancing overall quality of life.

The wrist mounted monitoring device (WMD) developed includes algorithms and sensors to monitor human vital health parameters such as heart rate, heart rhythm, 2-lead ECG, blood pressure, SpO2 blood saturation, skin perspiration and body temperature. Applying aggressive low-power design techniques enabled the whole system to be integrated into a wrist-worn device, continuous long-term monitoring without interfering with the patients’ everyday activities or restricting their mobility.