Moving Towards a Blockchain-Based Healthcare Information System

One of the major problems that a national health system face is the lack of a unified clinical data management. In Greece, the critical and sensitive medical data generated during a patient lifetime are fragmented in one or more hospitals and healthcare services are not characterized by a 'continuity' factor. There is not the appropriate technological and administrative infrastructure for a unified patient medical history, prescriptions, laboratory tests or therapeutic plan. Technological, administrative and economic factors have led to this situation. We propose the integration and implementation of a blockchain network as a complementary technology to the existing information systems, so reliable and effective information management could be provided by a healthcare organization or the national healthcare system. Blockchain technology could be implemented as a bridge that can provide information systems interoperability within a hospital or between different hospitals. © 2019 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved

Integrated optic tunable add-drop filters for WDM ring networks

This paper deals with two types of thermo-optically tunable add-drop filters realized by means of different technologies: fiber-matched low-pressure chemical vapor deposited (LPCVD)-grown SiO 2 waveguides and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)-grown high-refractive-index-contrast SiON waveguides. Design and technology aspects are outlined. The device characterizations, drawn from laboratory and field trial measurements, are reported. The description focuses on the device applications in a system context. In particular, the usefulness of the components as the basic elements of an optical add-drop multiplexer node, suitable for a ring network, is shown. The key component aspects are presented as strictly related to system requirements and issue