The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) is working on EmpMedica — a device that can measure temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure, sugar level with the help of its sensors.

By using this remote health monitoring system, a doctor can diagnose and monitor patients from anywhere in the world. It’s a small device like a wrist watch with a number of inbuilt sensors for measuring temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure, etc. It will transmit sensor data from the patient’s body to Empvista — a server situated at IIT-A via the user’s cellphone.

A doctor can connect to the Empvista server anytime through the Internet or his cellphone and attend to his patient. He can also access his reports, said Babu D Choudhary, who is working on the project. The device has been successfully tested, he added.

“The project will be ready for commercial use by 2010-end and will be available in the market at a price of around Rs 3,000,” said Professor Radhakrishna, the project head.

EmpMedica has a two-way communication support — a doctor can communicate with patient through voice and video and vice versa.

He can not only prescribe medicines for the patient, the device can even remind the patient to take his medicine on time with the help of an alarm. Moreover, the device can generate daily reports of a patient for the doctor’s reference.

“We are also trying to come up with a 3G communication chip. Then it will be possible to have face-to-face video communication between the doctor and the patient,” said Choudhary.