Design of an Edge-based Portable EHR System for Anemia Screening in Remote Health Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a portable, offline-capable EHR system designed for remote health settings, integrating anemia screening via fingernail analysis, with optimized AI models for quick, secure, and privacy-compliant diagnostics.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel edge-enabled EHR platform with integrated non-invasive anemia screening, optimized for offline operation, security, and modularity in resource-limited environments.

Findings

Achieved a test RMSE of 1.969 g/dL in anemia prediction.

Reduced inference latency of nail bed detection from 46.96 ms to 21.50 ms.

System supports secure, offline-first health data management in underserved regions.

Abstract

The design of medical systems for remote, resource-limited environments faces persistent challenges due to poor interoperability, lack of offline support, and dependency on costly infrastructure. Many existing digital health solutions neglect these constraints, limiting their effectiveness for frontline health workers in underserved regions. This paper presents a portable, edge-enabled Electronic Health Record platform optimized for offline-first operation, secure patient data management, and modular diagnostic integration. Running on small-form factor embedded devices, it provides AES-256 encrypted local storage with optional cloud synchronization for interoperability. As a use case, we integrated a non-invasive anemia screening module leveraging fingernail pallor analysis. Trained on 250 patient cases (27\% anemia prevalence) with KDE-balanced data, the Random Forest model achieved a test RMSE of 1.969 g/dL and MAE of 1.490 g/dL. A severity-based model reached 79.2\% sensitivity. To optimize performance, a YOLOv8n-based nail bed detector was quantized to INT8, reducing inference latency from 46.96 ms to 21.50 ms while maintaining mAP@0.5 at 0.995. The system emphasizes low-cost deployment, modularity, and data privacy compliance (HIPAA/GDPR), addressing critical barriers to digital health adoption in disconnected settings. Our work demonstrates a scalable approach to enhance portable health information systems and support frontline healthcare in underserved regions.