SAA, 1st version - Net!Works

eMobility – Strategic Applications AgendaHealth and InclusionII.2.1. DescriptionPervasive healthcare systems (wireless diagnostic and disease management systems) involve the sensing of apatient‘s physiological and physical parameters and transmitting them to a remote medical centre, where expertmedical knowledge resides [3] [4]. A typical pervasive healthcare system has the ability to record physiologicalparameters and provide information to the doctor in real time through a wireless connection. Unobtrusivewireless sensors are used to measure critical parameters like arterial blood pressure, heart rate, breath rate,oxygen saturation, electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, respiration, and glucose or patient position andactivity [5]-[10]. Advanced and miniature sensors, portable and wearable electronics, active and intelligentimplants such as defibrillators, as well as RFID and bio-diagnostic systems at the point-of-care, are examples ofstate-of-the-art pervasive healthcare systems.Integration of sensors into compact devices, together with wireless gateways, ubiquitous communicationtechnology and penetration of mobile phones and wireless technologies, deliver mobility solutions that open upimmense potential for technology-enabled proactive healthcare and independent living.Regarding networking, there are:Wearable systems that must be small and light enough to fit inside clothing or attached to a belt orother accessory or is worn directly like a watch or glasses.The systems that the user does not wear or carry based on a wireless infrastructure.The most relevant protocols for pervasive e-health systems (short-range) are Bluetooth and ZigBee(IEEE 802.15.4 standard).Such pervasive systems, including portable and handheld ICT devices as well as wearable systems, in mostwireless diagnostic and disease management applications are divided in two categories:A. Point-of-care diagnostics enables early diagnosis of a disease and indications of suitable treatments. Thisscenario could occur when the patient does not feel well and, thus, decides to initiate an out-of-schedule session,or when the monitoring device detects a problem and automatically initiates the transfer of data to thecorresponding centre (emergency episode detection).More specifically this category includes the following applications:Mobile applications to monitor and transmit to a data base Cardiovascular and hemodynamicparameters;Mobile applications to monitor and transmit to a data base other human vital signs and images.B. Treatment management systems (patient follow up and ―personal assistance‖).This category refers to the everyday monitoring process, where vital signs are acquired and transmittedperiodically to a health-monitoring centre. The received data are monitored by the doctor on-duty and thenstored into the patient‘s electronic health record maintained by a healthcare centre. These systems include thepatient-care unit, communication systems (e.g. mobile phones), RFID technologies etc. and are used forpersonalised health status monitoring for chronic disease management such as diabetes and cardio-vasculardisease. This category mainly concerns patients who have been recently discharged from hospital after someform of intervention, for instance, after a cardiac incident, cardiac surgery, or a diabetic comma and requireenhanced care. Current conditions where home monitoring might be provided include hypertension, sleep apnoeamonitoring, ECG arrhythmia monitoring, post surgical monitoring, diabetes (monitoring glucose), obesity and CHF(monitoring weight), asthma and COPD (monitoring spirometry/peak flow), and, in the near future, conditionsutilizing oximetry monitoring. Other home-monitoring conditions might include preeclampsia, anorexia, low birthweightinfants, growth abnormalities, and arrhythmias.More specifically this category includes the following applications:Mobile applications to monitor and transmit to a data base cardiovascular and hemodynamic parameters;Mobile applications to monitor and transmit to a data base human activity parameters;Mobile applications to monitor and transmit to a data base other human vital signs and images.The following target groups are considered [11] to be best suited to adopt the above mobile applications:Teenagers: Systems that encourage young people to adopt healthy lifestyles by preventive actions(hypertension, cholesterol).5