Investigating 9-1-1 Call Experience for Medical Emergencies for Future Design

Since the late 1960s, medical emergency services have used phones to share information between the caller (e.g., a patient or a caregiver) and call taker (e.g., 9-1-1 dispatcher) to dispatch the appropriate first responders. However, there are many limitations to these emergency call services. Precious time can be lost due to the amount of time required to communicate with the call taker, explain the emergency situation, and clarify information. Other concerning situations are where someone cannot speak English. The exchange between the caller and call taker comes down to whether there is an accurate understanding of the incident so that proper help can be readily provided. Advancements in medical emergency call systems can lead to a better understanding of the emergency, faster action, and most importantly, a smaller number of preventable deaths. There have been some recent research efforts attempting to develop the next generation of 9-1-1 services in North America. The challenge is that there has been little exploration into how such services and technologies should be designed and how they can fit within the workflow of current 9-1-1 call services. To design the next generation of 9-1-1 call experiences for medical emergencies, the current state of 9-1-1 call experiences must be investigated. This research examines how patients, or those calling for a patient, experienced phone calls to 9-1-1, what challenges they faced, how technology experts can design novel technologies to support their needs when encountering a medical emergency, and what the enablers and hindrances of incorporating technologies into current 9-1-1 systems are. As technology advances, we can evolve the services for medical emergencies. This research can inform the design of the next 9-1-1 calling system for medical emergencies to provide faster and more accurate care through improved communication

Medical Cyber-Physical Systems Development: A Forensics-Driven Approach

The synthesis of technology and the medical industry has partly contributed to the increasing interest in Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MCPS). While these systems provide benefits to patients and professionals, they also introduce new attack vectors for malicious actors (e.g. financially-and/or criminally-motivated actors). A successful breach involving a MCPS can impact patient data and system availability. The complexity and operating requirements of a MCPS complicates digital investigations. Coupling this information with the potentially vast amounts of information that a MCPS produces and/or has access to is generating discussions on, not only, how to compromise these systems but, more importantly, how to investigate these systems. The paper proposes the integration of forensics principles and concepts into the design and development of a MCPS to strengthen an organization's investigative posture. The framework sets the foundation for future research in the refinement of specific solutions for MCPS investigations.Comment: This is the pre-print version of a paper presented at the 2nd International Workshop on Security, Privacy, and Trustworthiness in Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MedSPT 2017

Next Generation Cloud Computing: New Trends and Research Directions

The landscape of cloud computing has significantly changed over the last decade. Not only have more providers and service offerings crowded the space, but also cloud infrastructure that was traditionally limited to single provider data centers is now evolving. In this paper, we firstly discuss the changing cloud infrastructure and consider the use of infrastructure from multiple providers and the benefit of decentralising computing away from data centers. These trends have resulted in the need for a variety of new computing architectures that will be offered by future cloud infrastructure. These architectures are anticipated to impact areas, such as connecting people and devices, data-intensive computing, the service space and self-learning systems. Finally, we lay out a roadmap of challenges that will need to be addressed for realising the potential of next generation cloud systems.Comment: Accepted to Future Generation Computer Systems, 07 September 201

Data DNA: The Next Generation of Statistical Metadata

Describes the components of a complete statistical metadata system and suggests ways to create and structure metadata for better access and understanding of data sets by diverse users