Using handheld devices for real-time wireless teleconsultation

Recent advances in the hardware of handheld devices, opened up the way for newer applications in the healthcare sector, and more specifically, in the teleconsultation field. Out of these devices, this paper focuses on the services that personal digital assistants and smartphones can provide to improve the speed, quality and ease of delivering a medical opinion from a distance and laying the ground for an all-wireless hospital. In that manner, PDAs were used to wirelessly support the viewing of digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) images and to allow for mobile videoconferencing while within the hospital. Smartphones were also used to carry still images, multiframes and live video outside the hospital. Both of these applications aimed at increasing the mobility of the consultant while improving the healthcare service

Wireless body sensor networks for health-monitoring applications

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Physiological Measurement. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/29/11/R01

The Next Generation of Mobile Computing for Hospitals

Mobile computing in the broadest sense is when multiple communications devices work together within an environment, unhampered by equipment limitations, distance, or interference. As computer and networking devices are put into smaller and smaller envelopes, their workplace usefulness increases. These mobile devices offer the potential of increasing the quality of healthcare services by making better use of hospital resources, including improved communications among medical and support staff, and increased patient monitoring. This paper depicts several hospital scenarios in order to conceptualize the planning and design of future mobile networks, taking into consideration patient care, management thinking, and technical issues

Mobile Computing for Hospitals: Transition Problems

Mobile communication devices have an untapped potential to increase the quality of healthcare services. These devices can become the backbone for a new level of hospital service. This would include improved communications among medical and support staff and increased patient monitoring using a whole new generation of RFlDs. Yet, problems come with the introduction of new technology, some anticipated, some not. This paper develops several hospital scenarios depicting possible problem areas in the conceptualizing, planning and design of future mobile networks

Urban management revolution: intelligent management systems for ubiquitous cities

A successful urban management support system requires an integrated approach. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated transparent and open decision making mechanism. The paper emphasises the importance of integrated urban management to better tackle the climate change, and to achieve sustainable urban development and sound urban growth management. This paper introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for ubiquitous cities. The paper discusses the essential role of online collaborative decision making in urban and infrastructure planning, development and management, and advocates transparent, fully democratic and participatory mechanisms for an effective urban management system that is particularly suitable for ubiquitous cities. This paper also sheds light on some of the unclear processes of urban management of ubiquitous cities and online collaborative decision making, and reveals the key benefits of integrated and participatory mechanisms in successfully constructing sustainable ubiquitous cities

A Wireless Monitoring System for Pulse-oximetry Sensors

This paper presents a wireless medical monitoring system. The system permits to receive and process in a single concentrator node (e.g. a laptop or a simple handheld device) the pulse-oximetry signals from one ore several monitored patients without using any wired infrastructure. The system, which is based on a piconet of Bluetooth sensors, can retransmit the medical signals by WLAN and GPRS. The paper describes the practical application scenarios in which this type of systems could be of great utility.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIC2003- 07953-C02-0

Security Issues in Healthcare Applications Using Wireless Medical Sensor Networks: A Survey

Healthcare applications are considered as promising fields for wireless sensor networks, where patients can be monitored using wireless medical sensor networks (WMSNs). Current WMSN healthcare research trends focus on patient reliable communication, patient mobility, and energy-efficient routing, as a few examples. However, deploying new technologies in healthcare applications without considering security makes patient privacy vulnerable. Moreover, the physiological data of an individual are highly sensitive. Therefore, security is a paramount requirement of healthcare applications, especially in the case of patient privacy, if the patient has an embarrassing disease. This paper discusses the security and privacy issues in healthcare application using WMSNs. We highlight some popular healthcare projects using wireless medical sensor networks, and discuss their security. Our aim is to instigate discussion on these critical issues since the success of healthcare application depends directly on patient security and privacy, for ethic as well as legal reasons. In addition, we discuss the issues with existing security mechanisms, and sketch out the important security requirements for such applications. In addition, the paper reviews existing schemes that have been recently proposed to provide security solutions in wireless healthcare scenarios. Finally, the paper ends up with a summary of open security research issues that need to be explored for future healthcare applications using WMSNs

Efficiency measurement for management

The previous chapter has discussed the use of efficiency analysis tools to guide policy development and formulation. While few readers will doubt that clear, consistent policy direction is necessary for the delivery of productivity improvements, it is not sufficient. To lead to action on the ground, policy interventions have to influence the behaviour of the staff who see and treat patients, and deliver public health and social care programmes. In this chapter, we discuss the challenges facing management as it seeks to use the analytic tools discussed elsewhere in this volume to secure efficiency improvements

A Software-Based Trust Framework for Distributed Industrial Management Systems

One of the major problems in industrial security management is that most organizations or enterprises do not provide adequate guidelines or well-defined policy with respect to trust management, and trust is still an afterthought in most security engineering projects. With the increase of handheld devices, managers of business organizations tend to use handheld devices to access the information systems. However, the connection or access to an information system requires appropriate level of trust. In this paper, we present a flexible, manageable, and configurable software-based trust framework for the handheld devices of mangers to access distributed information systems. The presented framework minimizes the effects of malicious recommendations related to the trust from other devices or infrastructures. The framework allows managers to customize trust-related settings depending on network environments in an effort to create a more secure and functional network. To cope with the organizational structure of a large enterprise, within this framework, handheld devices of managers are broken down into different categories based upon available resources and desired security functionalities. The framework is implemented and applied to build a number of trust sensitive applications such as health care