A feasibility study for the provision of electronic healthcare tools and services in areas of Greece, Cyprus and Italy

Background: Through this paper, we present the initial steps for the creation of an integrated platform for the provision of a series of eHealth tools and services to both citizens and travelers in isolated areas of thesoutheast Mediterranean, and on board ships travelling across it. The platform was created through an INTERREG IIIB ARCHIMED project called INTERMED. Methods: The support of primary healthcare, home care and the continuous education of physicians are the three major issues that the proposed platform is trying to facilitate. The proposed system is based on state-of-the-art telemedicine systems and is able to provide the following healthcare services: i) Telecollaboration and teleconsultation services between remotely located healthcare providers, ii) telemedicine services in emergencies, iii) home telecare services for "at risk" citizens such as the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, and iv) eLearning services for the continuous training through seminars of both healthcare personnel (physicians, nurses etc) and persons supporting "at risk" citizens. These systems support data transmission over simple phone lines, internet connections, integrated services digital network/digital subscriber lines, satellite links, mobile networks (GPRS/3G), and wireless local area networks. The data corresponds, among others, to voice, vital biosignals, still medical images, video, and data used by eLearning applications. The proposed platform comprises several systems, each supporting different services. These were integrated using a common data storage and exchange scheme in order to achieve system interoperability in terms of software, language and national characteristics. Results: The platform has been installed and evaluated in different rural and urban sites in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. The evaluation was mainly related to technical issues and user satisfaction. The selected sites are, among others, rural health centers, ambulances, homes of "at-risk" citizens, and a ferry. Conclusions: The results proved the functionality and utilization of the platform in various rural places in Greece, Cyprus and Italy. However, further actions are needed to enable the local healthcare systems and the different population groups to be familiarized with, and use in their everyday lives, mature technological solutions for the provision of healthcare services

DICOM metadata: a useful resource for big data analytics

Postprint (published version

Remote Elderly Monitoring Systems on a Human-centric Perspective

Information systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) are driving revolutionary solutions in innumerable domains, as the sensitive domain of healthcare. Indicatively, remote monitoring of patients and real-time diagnosis are anticipated as complex systems, offering various services to the associated humans (e.g. patients and caregivers). While researchers focus on the technology necessary to implement remote healthcare systems, such as Remote Elderly Monitoring System (REMS), human concerns restricting their wider adoption are often neglected. Such concerns are transformed into criticalities, that should be considered during system design. In this work, a human-centric perspective on REMS design is explored. Following this perspective, supported tasks are decodified, human concerns associated to REMS usage are identified and revealed criticalities, that stem from human concerns, are extracted. Furthermore, existing REMS implementations are examined, based on the tasks supported and criticalities addressed, resulting in the identification of ways to further improve such systems

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

Allied health video consultation services

Many Australians have limited access to health care services due to a range of barriers including living a considerable distance from health services. Furthermore, there are significant shortages of healthcare workers in many rural and remote areas. Traditionally, many people have had to either travel long distances to access healthcare, or go without. Telehealth is an alternative approach, using telecommunications and information technology to supplement face-to-face delivery of healthcare services

Process of change in organisations through eHealth: 2nd International eHealth Symposium 2010, Stuttgart, Germany, June 7 - 8, 2010 ; Proceedings edited by Stefan Kirn

Foreword: On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Hohenheim, Stuttgart for the 2nd International eHealth Symposium which is themed 'Process of change in organisations through eHealth'. Starting with the inaugural event in 2009, which took place in Turku, Finland, we want to implement a tradition of international eHealth symposia. The presentations and associated papers in this proceedings give a current and representative outline of technical options, application potentials, usability, acceptance and potential for optimization in health care by ICT. We are pleased to present a high-quality program. This year we convey a unique opportunity for academic researchers and industry practitioners to report their state-of-the-art research findings in the domain of eHealth. The symposium aims to foster the international community by gathering experts from various countries such as Australia, Great Britain, Finland and Germany. A first step is done by this symposium which considers this interaction and delivers an insight into current advances made and open research questions. The organizers would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people which made the Symposium possible. We are pleased if both attendance to the 2nd International eHealth Symposium 2010 and reading of this proceedings give you answers to urging questions, a basis for critical discussions, references on interesting tasks and stimulations for new approaches. Table of Contents: Martin Sedlmayr, Andreas Becker, Hans-Ulrich Prokosch, Christian Flügel, Fritz Meier: OPAL Health - A Smart Object Network for Hospital Logistics // Rajeev K. Bali, M. Chris Gribbons, Vikraman Baskaran, Raouf NG Naguib: Perspectives on E-Health: the human touch // Falk Zwicker, Torsten Eymann: Why RFID projects in hospitals (necessarily) fail. Lesson from comparative studies // Nilmin Wickramasinghe, F. Moghimi, J. Schaffer: Designing an intelligent risk detection framework using knowledge discovery techniques to improve efficiency and accuracy of healthcare care decision making // Volker Viktor, Heiko Schellhorn: In search of an appropriate service model for telehealth in Germany // Simone Schillings, Julia Fernandes: Towards a reference model for telemedicine // Reima Suomi: Towards rewards awareness in health care information systems // Manuel Zwicker, Jürgen Seitz, Nilmini Wickramasingh: Adaptions for e-kiosk systems to develop barrier-free terminals for handicapped persons --