Mobihealth: mobile health services based on body area networks

In this chapter we describe the concept of MobiHealth and the approach developed during the MobiHealth project (MobiHealth, 2002). The concept was to bring together the technologies of Body Area Networks (BANs), wireless broadband communications and wearable medical devices to provide mobile healthcare services for patients and health professionals. These technologies enable remote patient care services such as management of chronic conditions and detection of health emergencies. Because the patient is free to move anywhere whilst wearing the MobiHealth BAN, patient mobility is maximised. The vision is that patients can enjoy enhanced freedom and quality of life through avoidance or reduction of hospital stays. For the health services it means that pressure on overstretched hospital services can be alleviated

Impact of Mobile and Wireless Technology on Healthcare Delivery services

Modern healthcare delivery services embrace the use of leading edge technologies and new scientific discoveries to enable better cures for diseases and better means to enable early detection of most life-threatening diseases. The healthcare industry is finding itself in a state of turbulence and flux. The major innovations lie with the use of information technologies and particularly, the adoption of mobile and wireless applications in healthcare delivery [1]. Wireless devices are becoming increasingly popular across the healthcare field, enabling caregivers to review patient records and test results, enter diagnosis information during patient visits and consult drug formularies, all without the need for a wired network connection [2]. A pioneering medical-grade, wireless infrastructure supports complete mobility throughout the full continuum of healthcare delivery. It facilitates the accurate collection and the immediate dissemination of patient information to physicians and other healthcare care professionals at the time of clinical decision-making, thereby ensuring timely, safe, and effective patient care. This paper investigates the wireless technologies that can be used for medical applications, and the effectiveness of such wireless solutions in a healthcare environment. It discusses challenges encountered; and concludes by providing recommendations on policies and standards for the use of such technologies within hospitals

Addendum to Informatics for Health 2017: Advancing both science and practice

This article presents presentation and poster abstracts that were mistakenly omitted from the original publication

Role of Wearable Health Devices in Public Health: Developing Flexible Electronics for Seamless and Continuous Health Monitoring

The strategy for personalized medicine is the incorporation of regular health check-ups and wearable health devices into public health campaigns. These innovations have the potential to reduce the burden on healthcare systems by enabling early detection, improved management of chronic conditions, and provision of real-time personal health data to individuals. To achieve this, problems related to the accuracy of devices used, security of data stored in these devices, compliance with usage requirements by consumers, and relations with the current healthcare system must be addressed. A solution to these barriers has been proposed as a Non-Invasive Flexible Sensors for Health Monitoring (N-IFS-HM) approach which involves making sensors that are lightweight, attractive looking, and provide accurate continuous health information without disturbing the users during their daily activities. Through detailed simulation studies conducted in different healthcare settings, this paper examine the dependability and effectiveness of N-IFS-HM implementation. Consequently, based on simulation results done on delicate sensors such as these, vital signs, activities and minimal discomforting healthcare products can be traced accurately. According to this finding, wearable digital technology with sophisticated flexible electronics can revolutionize how public health is assessed

Enhancing Seamless Nurses-Physician Communication After-Hours with Google Glass

There is a major issue in medical centres in Malaysia: the shared responsibility and communication between nurses at the bedside care and conversation with the physicians after-hours. Inexperience nurses may, sometimes, overlook patients' critical symptoms that indicate immediate medical care and cause the circumstance deteriorate. Therefore, mutual blaming practices are common if there is a medical error. The design of hands-free assessment and feedback with wearable technologies is welcomed in healthcare sector. Hence, the paper presents a pilot design that investigates how a wearable technology can help in daily patient care in an innovative way that enhance the nurses and physicians' communication. The paper reviewed the current practices and technologies, followed by the design of the transformed flow, hardware and apps used with technical limitations, pilot evaluation and future work

Information Systems and Healthcare XX: Toward Seamless Healthcare with Software Agents

Healthcare processes are frequently fragmented and often badly supported with IT. Inter- and intra-organizational communication and media frictions complicate the continuous provision of information according to the principle of information logistics. Based on extensive literature review, we present the vision of seamless healthcare with horizontally and vertically integrated healthcare processes enabled by seamless IT support. Its implementation requires the establishment of a communication infrastructure and the deployment of adequate standards in healthcare. There are already comprehensive approaches for dealing with integrating heterogeneous information systems. However, they lack a common communication infrastructure and do not support proactivity and flexibility which are dominant characteristics in healthcare. We propose a software agent-based approach for realizing the vision of seamless healthcare. We present a corresponding implementation for integrating heterogeneous information systems in the context of the German Health Telematics Infrastructure. Based on the concept and the implementation, we show that the modular approach is capable of supporting a wide range of different applications. We furthermore outline which facets of an agent-based solution could be implemented in an operative real-world environment. In closing we derive implications for IT decision makers in healthcare and show directions for future approaches for reducing information logistics related deficits in healthcare