Design and Construction of a Low-Cost Pressure and Temperature Sensing Mattress with Software-Based Digital Countdown Timer for Bedsore Control and Prevention

Bedsores, also called pressure ulcers, are localized injuries on the skin and/or the underlying tissues, usually over a bony prominence as a result of prolonged pressure and temperature on the skin due to lack of position changes for more than 2 hours. While there are caregivers saddled with the responsibility of repositioning immobile patients; the workload on the caregiver and/or nurses often limits consistency and efficiency in postural changes. Devices used to monitor these pressure ulcers are often expensive. The aim of this paper is on design and construction of an easily adoptable solution for the control and prevention of bedsores as well as addressing the relatively high cost, complexity and additional inconveniences posed by existing solutions. A low-cost pressure and temperature sensing mattress has been successfully designed and constructed using two LM35DZ temperature sensors, an MHT1 load-cells connected in Wheatstone-bridge configuration format with a HX711 load-cell amplifier, a software-based digital countdown timer implemented on Internet-ready Arduino Mega 2560 embedded system development board with an intelligent liquid crystal display unit as well as an overlapping mattress with an automatic backup uninterrupted power supply system such that the durations of the pressure and temperature occurrences between the patient and the pressure bed interface is measured and an alarm is triggered after or before 90 minutes to alert the caregivers and/or nurses for repositioning the patient. The designed, constructed, calibrated and validated low-cost pressure and temperature sensing mattress have been tested on patients with successful results. The designed and constructed pressure and temperature sensing mattress can be deployed to hospitals, clinics and healthcare centres. The complete software program for the implementation of the low-cost pressure and temperature sensing mattress is presented. Few recommendations are proposed for further improvements.