Ubiquitous Healthcare Systems

Healthcare activities based on Information and Communication Technologies - is one the most prominent of these e-business services that can have a major visible impact on the development of the society, as endorsed in the World Health Assembly in May 2005. 

Ubiquitous Healthcare (u-Health) focuses on e-Health applications that can provide health care to people anywhere at any time using broadband and wireless mobile technologies.
 

Components of ubiquitous healthcare system

A ubiquitous healthcare system consists of

• Physiological signal devices
• A mobile system
• A device provider system
• A healthcare service provider system
• A physician system 
• A healthcare personal system.

In this system, wireless body area network (WBAN) such as ZigBee is used to communicate between physiological signal devices and the mobile system. 

WBAN device needs a specific function for ubiquitous healthcare application. A scanning algorithm, dynamic discovery and installation, reliable data transmission, device access control, and a healthcare profile is needed for ubiquitous healthcare system.

There are a lot of small devices in ubiquitous healthcare system. There is much difficulty in using a new small device if it is not discovered automatically. The small devices should be discovered and installed automatically to implement ubiquitous healthcare system.

Types of Wearable Physiological Devices -

• Wrist watch type.
• Chest belt type.
• Shoulder type.
• Necklace type.

Benefits of ubiquitous healthcare system

• More efficient utilization of physicians,
• Shortened hospital stays,
• Reducing the skill level and frequency of visits of home-care professionals
• Reducing hospital readmission rates, and
• Promoting health education can all contribute to reduced healthcare costs.
• The ubiquitous healthcare system enables medical professionals to remotely perform real-time monitoring, early diagnosis, and treatment for potential risky disease. 
• Furthermore, the medical diagnosis and patient consultations can be delivered via wire/wireless communication channels.
• The ubiquitous healthcare system can provide a cheaper and smarter way to manage and care for patients suffering from age-related chronic diseases, such as heart disease , because chronic diseases require continuous, long-term monitoring rather than episodic assessments.
• A continuous health monitoring system should be

§  Wearable and easy to use.

§  Plug-and-play system using Bluetooth as the wireless communication protocol.

§  Integrate current personal digital assistant (PDA) technology and wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.