Profile Management System in Ubiquitous Healthcare Cloud Computing Environment

A shift from the doctor-centric model to a patient-centric model is required to face the challenges of the healthcare sector. The vision of patient-centric model can be materialized integrating ubiquitous healthcare and the notion of personalization in services. Cloud computing can be the underlying technology for ubiquitous healthcare. The use of profiles enables the personalization in healthcare services and the use of profile management systems facilitates the deployment of these services. In this paper, we propose a profile management system in ubiquitous healthcare cloud computing environment. The proposed system exploits the cloud computing technology and the smart card technology to increase the efficiency and the quality of the provided healthcare services in the context of the patient-centric model. Furthermore, we propose generic healthcare profile structures corresponding to the main classes of the participating entities in a ubiquitous healthcare cloud computing environment

Pericardial cyst: An unusual cause of chest pain

AbstractPericardial cysts are uncommon paracardiac lesions, usually located within the right cardiophrenic space. They usually do not cause symptoms and are detected by chance. Chest X-ray, echocardiography, and chest computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging are useful diagnostic tools. We report a case of a man with symptomatic pericardial cysts of unusual location, review the literature, and discuss the diagnostic approach and treatment options.<Learning objective: Pericardial cysts are uncommon mediastinal lesions, diagnosed safely when suspected by echocardiography and computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. An invasive therapeutic approach should be preferred in symptomatic cases.

Security in smart home environment

This chapter presents the concept of Smart Home, describes the Smart Home networking technologies and discusses the main issues for ensuring security in a Smart Home environment. Nowadays, the integration of current communication and information technologies within the dwelling has led to the emergence of Smart Homes. These technologies facilitate the building of Smart Home environments in which devices and systems can communicate with each other and can be controlled automatically in order to interact with the household members and improve the quality of their life. However, the nature of Smart Home environment, the fact that it is always connected to the outside world via Internet and the open security back doors derived from the household members raise many security concerns. Finally, by reviewing the existing literature regarding Smart Homes and security issues that exist in Smart Home environments, the authors envisage to provide a base to broaden the research in Smart Home security

Towards personalized services in the healthcare domain

Healthcare services are designed for enabling the provision of medical care to the patient. The traditional healthcare services are based on the doctor-centric paradigm. Essentially, they enable healthcare providers to assess patients’ health status based on information derived from medical examination and information stored in patient’s electronic Medical Health Records (eMHRs) [1]. Hence, it is crucial for patient’s health data to be digitalized and organized in such a way allowing their exploitation by the healthcare provider at a later point of time [2]. The doctor-centric healthcare services enhance healthcare providers’ diagnosing skills and enable them to give patients accurate treatment directions aiming to their earlier and safer de-hospitalization

Group profile management in ubiquitous healthcare environment

Nowadays, ubiquitous healthcare is of utmost importance in the patient-centric model. Furthermore, the personalization of ubiquitous healthcare services plays a very important role to make the patient-centric model a reality. The personalization of the ubiquitous healthcare services is based on the profiles of the entities participating in these services. In this paper, we propose a group profile management system in a ubiquitous healthcare environment. The proposed system is responsible for the dynamic creation of a group profile and its management

User authentication and authorization for next generation mobile passenger ID devices for land and sea border control

Despite the significant economic benefits derived from the continuously increasing number of visitors entering the European Union through land-border crossing points or sea ports, novel solutions, such as next generation mobile devices for passenger identification for land and sea border control, are required to promote the comfort of passengers. However, the highly sensitive information handled by these devices makes them an attractive target for attackers. Therefore, strong user authentication and authorization mechanisms are required. Towards this direction, we provide an overview of user authentication and authorization requirements for this new type of devices based on the NIST Special Publication 500-280v2.1

Ubiquitous healthcare profile management applying smart card technology

Nowadays, the patient-centric healthcare approach is focused on ubiquitous healthcare services. Furthermore, the adoption of cloud computing technology leads to more efficient ubiquitous healthcare systems. Moreover, the personalization of the delivery of ubiquitous healthcare services is enabled with the introduction of user profiles. In this paper, we propose five generic healthcare profile structures corresponding to the main categories of the participating entities included in a typical ubiquitous healthcare system in a cloud computing environment. In addition, we propose a profile management system incorporating smart card technology to increase its efficiency and the quality of the provided services of the ubiquitous healthcare system

Healthcare profile management system in smart cards

Nowadays, healthcare profile management systems are essential for ubiquitous healthcare systems in cloud computing environments. However, these profile management systems incorporate user profiles consisting of limited user information associated with user preferences and interests. Thus, it is required the deployment of profile management systems enabling the reliable creation and efficient management of enriched user profiles. Toward to this effort, in this paper, we propose a smart card file system design for the user healthcare smart cards incorporated in a healthcare profile management system applying in a typical ubiquitous healthcare system

Provision of Personalized Ubiquitous Healthcare Services over NGN Using Always Best Connected Service Provider

This paper presents a personalized middleware for mobile eHealth (mHealth) services for use in the Ubiquitous Consumer Wireless World (UCWW). The middleware was developed based on the ISO/IEEE 11073 personal health data (PHD) standards. It works as a multi-agent system (MAS) to provide intelligent collection of physiological data from medical sensors attached to human body, and subsequent sending of gathered data to a log data node by utilizing the Always Best Connected and best Served (ABC&S) communication paradigm. A number of design issues associated with the middleware implementation are outlined

A Survey on security threats and countermeasures in Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)

Internet of medical things (IoMT) is an emerging technology aiming to improve the patient's quality of life by enabling personalized e‐health services without limitations on time and location. Nevertheless, IoMT devices (eg, medical sensors) that constitute the key underlying elements of the IoMT edge network are vulnerable to various types of security threats and thus, they pose a significant risk to patient's privacy and safety. Based on that and the fact that the security is a critical factor for the successful integration of IoMT technology into pervasive healthcare systems, there is an urgent need for novel security mechanisms to preserve the security of the IoMT edge network. Toward this direction, the first step is the comprehensive understanding of existing and potential threats to the IoMT edge network environment. Thus, in this article, we provide a categorization of security threats to the edge network environment based on the major security objectives that they target. Moreover, we present a categorization of security countermeasures, derived from the literature, against threats to IoMT edge networks. The authors' intent is to provide a foundation for organizing research efforts toward the development of proper security countermeasures for protecting IoMT edge networks against internal and external threats