ABSTRACT The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is an emerging field that has attracted significant attention in recent years. In this context, communication technology for reduced‐capacity devices has assumed a pivotal role. This research contributes to the IoMT literature by presenting a novel monitoring framework that integrates short‐ and long‐range communication systems to monitor neurodegenerative disease‐affected individuals. A further contribution is the validation of the proposed framework via proof of concept (PoC) implementations based on low‐cost commercial devices. Specifically, the system incorporates a small‐size wearable device equipped with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology for precise geolocation, and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensor for collecting vital health parameters. Utilising long range (LoRa) communication technology, the device relays both location and sensor data to the cloud, where they undergo processing. The cloud‐based application manages two critical functionalities. Firstly, it incorporates a geofencing capability that triggers alerts via an instant messaging service when monitored individuals cross predefined safe boundaries. Secondly, it has a visualisation web interface that displays both historical and real‐time location and health data. Field tests have been conducted in order to demonstrate the system's effectiveness in terms of GNSS accuracy, long‐range communication signal strength and alerting latencies.
Pugliese et al. (Thu,) studied this question.