Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a low-cost medical gas monitoring system to enhance safety in hospital gas storage rooms. Continuous monitoring of oxygen and carbon dioxide levels may help identify oxygendeficient or oxygen-enriched conditions and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations that may pose occupational safety risks to healthcare personnel.
Materials and Methods: An Internet of Things (IoT)-based device was developed to monitor medical gases and environmental conditions, including oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity. The system enables real-time monitoring and online data visualization. Sensor performance was validated against standard reference equipment.
Results: The developed system demonstrated normalized root mean square differences (nRMSD) of 15.47%, 0.085%, 4.80%, and 5.39% for carbon dioxide, oxygen, temperature, and relative humidity, respectively, under ambient environmental conditions. The corresponding normalized mean bias differences (nMBD) were -9.70%, 0.283%, 2.54%, and -3.00%, respectively. However, validation was conducted over a narrow ambient concentration range and did not include controlled gas concentrations near the predefined alarm thresholds. Therefore, these results represent preliminary measurement agreement under ambient conditions and do not establish alarm performance or safety-monitoring performance across the intended decision range.
Conclusion: The proposed low-cost monitoring system (approximately USD 255) enables continuous real-time monitoring of oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity under ambient environmental conditions. The system may support environmental monitoring and improve occupational safety in hospital medical gas storage areas.