Federated Embedded Systems – a review of the literature in related fields

This report is concerned with the vision of smart interconnected objects, a vision that has attracted much attention lately. In this paper, embedded, interconnected, open, and heterogeneous control systems are in focus, formally referred to as Federated Embedded Systems. To place FES into a context, a review of some related research directions is presented. This review includes such concepts as systems of systems, cyber-physical systems, ubiquitous computing, internet of things, and multi-agent systems. Interestingly, the reviewed fields seem to overlap with each other in an increasing number of ways

Mechatronics & the cloud

Conventionally, the engineering design process has assumed that the design team is able to exercise control over all elements of the design, either directly or indirectly in the case of sub-systems through their specifications. The introduction of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) means that a design team’s ability to have control over all elements of a system is no longer the case, particularly as the actual system configuration may well be being dynamically reconfigured in real-time according to user (and vendor) context and need. Additionally, the integration of the Internet of Things with elements of Big Data means that information becomes a commodity to be autonomously traded by and between systems, again according to context and need, all of which has implications for the privacy of system users. The paper therefore considers the relationship between mechatronics and cloud-basedtechnologies in relation to issues such as the distribution of functionality and user privacy

Healthcare interoperability through intelligent agent technology

With technological advances, the amount of data and the information systems in healthcare units has been increasing exponentially. The accessibility and availability of patients’ clinical information are a constant need. The Agency for Integration, Diffusion and Archive of Medical Information (AIDA) was developed to fulfill this need and it was implemented at the Centro Hospitalar do Porto (CHP), revealing a highly successful, ensuring interoperability among CHP healthcare information systems. This paper presents a new AIDA module, which aims to monitor the activity of its agents. It revealed its usefulness, providing to the user the functionalities and the necessary data for it to make a complete monitoring of the activities of each AIDA agent. It was still considered an efficient system, since it does not compromise the resources of the machine where it was implemented. In addition, this module increases AIDA functionality and efficiency

Strategic Intelligence Monitor on Personal Health Systems Phase 3 (SIMPHS3) - Operational Guidelines for ICT-supported Integrated Care and Independent Living

The guidelines in this report have been developed as part of the Strategic Intelligence Monitor on Personal Health Systems Phase 3 (SIMPHS3) project. Twenty-four ICT-supported integrated care initiatives in the EU were identified which supported integrated care and/or independent living and were either deployed or promising large scale pilots. The aim of this report is to define a set of recommendations to guide the process of developing and implementing ICT-supported integrated care and independent living, based on the experiences made in these 24 initiatives. The intended audience for this guidance document are those who work on the development and implementation of initiatives at an operational level, such as professionals, managers in healthcare organisations, regional managers of health or social care, health insurers, professionals’ organisations, etc.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Assessing the Interoperability of mLab and Ushauri mHealth Systems to Enhance Care for HIV/AIDS Patients in Kenya

The core thesis of this study is to explore the legal and technological feasibility to interoperate two mobile health-based solutions in Kenya: Ushauri-Text for Adherence (T4A), and Mobile Laboratory (mLab), to enhance HIV/AIDS care and treatment. This paper focuses on two aspects namely data interoperability by analysing secondary data abstracted from the mLab and the Ushauri databases from June 2017 to June 2018 and doctrinal analysis of the legal and policy environment to support the interoperability. This paper is a case study of the mLab and the Ushauri systems in terms of the technological stack for interoperability which has some legal implications. It includes a pilot study that employed a multistage sampling method in which thirty-nine health facilities in Siaya, Homa bay, Nyeri, and Muranga were selected. Findings show a satisfactory legal environment to augment the interoperability of the two mHealth systems. It is also evident that the two systems were considerably interoperable in terms of technology, semantics, data, and processes. However, interoperating them could largely be compromised by language semantics leading to a discrepancy of characters and numbering in unique identifiers in data entry. Though data in the systems were for the same individuals, it is critical to note that there was a low level of concordance in patient identification numbers in the same facilities where the same patients were receiving clinical services. Additionally, healthcare workers across the various facilities did not follow the NASCOP (2010) eleven-digit unique identifier system. Standardizing human activities while using systems such as the allocation of patient identifiers and following laid down standards while developing systems are critical ways of ensuring interoperability. This paper highlights the need to achieve full-scale implementation of laid down policies and legal requirements such as the systems’ interoperability certification process to standardise the systems and make them interoperable

A review of contemporary work on the ethics of ambient assisted living technologies for people with dementia

Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies can provide assistance and support to persons with dementia. They might allow them the possibility of living at home for longer whilst maintaining their comfort and security as well as offering a way towards reducing the huge economic and personal costs forecast as the incidence of dementia increases worldwide over coming decades. However, the development, introduction and use of AAL technologies also trigger serious ethical issues. This paper is a systematic literature review of the on-going scholarly debate about these issues. More specifically, we look at the ethical issues involved in research and development (R&D), clinical experimentation, and clinical application of AAL technologies for people with dementia and related stakeholders. In the discussion we focus on: 1) the value of the goals of AAL technologies, 2) the special vulnerability of persons with dementia in their private homes, 3) the complex question of informed consent for the usage of AAL technologies

Open source automated insulin delivery: addressing the challenge

Do-it-yourself automated insulin delivery systems for people living with type 1 diabetes use commercially available continuous glucose sensors and insulin pumps linked by unregulated open source software. Uptake of these systems is increasing, with growing evidence suggesting that positive glucose outcomes may be feasible. Increasing interest from people living with, or affected by, type 1 diabetes presents challenges to healthcare professionals, device manufacturers and regulators as the legal, governance and risk frameworks for such devices are not defined. We discuss the data, education, policy, technology and medicolegal obstacles to wider implementation of DIY systems and outline the next steps required for a co-ordinated approach to reducing variation in access to a technology that has potential to enable glucose self-management closer to target