IT-based Patient Interventions for Opioid Abuse: Evaluation using Analytical Model

The number of people in the US with opioid abuse exceeds 2 million and the total cost is approximately $100B per year. In this study, we focus on patient-level interventions and present three IT-based interventions: (a) mobile reminders, (b) electronic monitoring, and (c) composite intervention. We have developed an analytical model for evaluating interventions using Return-on-Investment (ROI). The interventions are cost-effective for higher values of intervention effectiveness, hospital, and emergency room cost. However, with QoL improvement, cost-effectiveness improves significantly. We also explored the use of financial incentives for increasing the adoption of interventions. These results will help patients, healthcare professionals, decision-makers, and family members to choose the most suitable intervention to address opioid abuse

Wireless and Pervasive Healthcare: Applications, Requirements, and Research Problems

With an increasingly mobile society and the worldwide deployment of mobile and wireless networks, the wireless infrastructure can support many current and emerging healthcare applications. In this tutorial, we present pervasive healthcare applications and requirements, and discuss how the current and emerging wireless and mobile technologies can be used to support these applications

Mobile and Wireless Information Systems: Applications, Networks, and Research Problems

Mobile and Wireless Information Systems received considerable interest in research and development communities. As a result, significant advances were made, which will affect our life both as users and researchers of mobile and wireless technologies. In this paper, we discuss both the current state of mobile and wireless information systems and the challenges in the wide-scale deployment and use of these systems. In particular, we address applications, wireless networks, mobile payments, security, challenges and research problems

Vehicular Mobile Commerce: Applications, Challenges, and Research Problems

With an increasing number of vehicles with significant computing and communication, many applications such as vehicular Internet hot-spots, digital and entertainment content\u27s broadcast, Intelligent Transportation Systems applications, and highway management will become possible. This vehicular mobile commerce will actively involve vehicles and users in both extending the existing mobile commerce applications to the vehicular environment and creating many more new and suitable applications. Before vehicular mobile commerce becomes a practical reality, many technical, structural and user issues must be addressed. In this paper, we identify and discuss several vehicular mobile commerce applications as well as wireless and networking challenges. We present possible solutions for vehicular mobile commerce and define several research problems that should be undertaken

Networking Support For Mobile Computing

With increasing use of small portable computers, wireless networks and satellites, a trend to support computing on the move has emerged. This trend is known as mobile computing or anytime and anywhere computing. Some people refer it as Nomadic computing. No matter which name is applied, all these terms really imply that a user may not maintain a fixed position in the network. The user is free to roam from one place to another. However the mobile user still expects uninterrupted network access and the ability to run some networked applications. To support such mobility, the user is typically provided a wireless interface to communicate with other fixed and mobile users. The mobile computing environment can be described by the following attributes (a) mobile users, (b) mobile support stations or base stations serving an area, (c) wireless interface, (d) wireless medium with varying channel characteristics (due to fading, noise, interference, etc.) and (e) various applications requiring specific support. A mobile computing environment raises such issues as how to route packets as the mobile user (hosts) moves from one place to the other and how to overcome limitations including limited bandwidth and storage. This tutorial presents an introduction to mobile computing, to the challenges introduced, and to emerging networking infrastructures for mobile computing

Supporting Quality-Of-Service of Mobile Commerce Transactions

With the deployment of 3G and 4G mobile networks, a sizable proportion of e-commerce traffic is expected to move to these networks. These transactions are likely to be diverse. Mobile transactions can include unique requirements such as atomicity (all or none steps), push or pull, security, and privacy. Because users are mobile, unpredictable link characteristics, and other problems associated with wireless networks, some mobile commerce transactions may not be completed causing significant annoyance to the users affected. Therefore, the probability of completing mobile transactions is an important parameter for measuring quality-of-service of a network supporting mobile commerce. The transaction completion probability measures the ability of networks to support completion of transactions. This research focuses on improving the support of mobile commerce transactions by the underlying wireless networks. Mobile commerce traffic is classified as messaging, information connectivity, and transactions in order to provide efficient quality-of-service to various applications. This paper introduces the use of priority, sociability and delegation to improve the transaction completion in wireless networks

Strategies Towards Chronic Disease Management via Medication Compliance

In the wake of the 21st century, healthcare systems around the globe are faced with an exponential rise in expenses, heavy utilization of services associated with a steep rise in aging population, and limited financial as well as human resources to manage the growing healthcare needs. A large percentage of chronic diseases deteriorate to the point where a crisis is reached resulting in unnecessary long-term hospitalization at massive cost to the healthcare sector. A critical inference drawn from epidemiological data and past studies is that preventing occurrences of acute episodes holds the key to providing quality healthcare, reducing incidences of prolonged hospitalizations and resultant healthcare expenses. This research is a work-in-progress that seeks to explore innovative strategies towards promoting medication compliance among chronic patients. This paper discusses the need for medication compliance and the cost of non-compliance to the healthcare sector. Salient behavioral, organizational, and technical research issues, opportunities, and challenges associated with promoting medication compliance via communication, computing, and sensing technologies are discussed. Potential benefits and costs of deploying innovative IT based medication compliance are also presented