Abstract This dissertation aimed at developing a multi-modal sensing u-healthcare system (MSUS), which reflects the unique properties of a healthcare application in a wireless sensor network. Together with health parameters, such as ECG, SpO2 and blood pressure, the system also transfers context-aware data, including activity, position and tracking data, in a wireless sensor network environment at home or in a hospital. Since packet loss may have fatal consequences for patients, health-related data are more critical than most other types of monitoring data. Thus, compared to environmental, agricultural or industrial monitoring, healthcare monitoring in a wireless environment imposes different requirements and priorities. These include heavy data traffic with wavelike parameters in wireless sensor network and fatal data loss due to the traffic. To ensure reliable data transfer in a wireless sensor network, this research placed special emphasis on the optimization of sampling rate, packet length and transmission rate, and on the traffic reduction method. To improve the reliability and accuracy of diagnosis, the u-healthcare system also collects context-aware information on the user’s activity and location and provides real-time tracking. Waveform health parameters, such as ECG, are normally sampled in the 100 to 400 Hz range according to the monitoring purpose. This type of waveform data may incur a heavy burden in wireless communication. To reduce wireless traffic between the sensor nodes and the gateway node, the system utilizes on-site ECG analysis implemented on the sensor nodes as well as query architecture. A 3D VRML viewer was also developed for the realistic monitoring of the user’s moving path and location. Two communication methods, an 802.15.4-based wireless sensor network and a CDMA cellular network are used by sensors placed on the users’ bodies to gather medical data, which is then transmitted to a server PC at home or in the hospital, depending on whether the sensor is within or outside the range of the wireless sensor network.

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Usage of mobile applications and wireless networks is growing rapidly at different sectors in the world. Mobile healthcare application is devotedly accepted by the healthcare organizations and also by patients. The reasons behind accepting mobile healthcare applications are as user friendly, reliable, low cost, time efficient, mobility etc. Though the use of mobile applications is rising day by day in the healthcare sectors still those applications are not completely secure to prevent disclosure and misuse of patient’s sensitive data. However, security issues in healthcare applications get attention by many organizations. In this thesis we have presented an integrated architecture for secure mobile healthcare system. This application provides management of patient medical records in a regional environment. Our mobile application is developed for Android platform. This solution is secure enough, because it fulfills important security requirements: integrity, confidentiality and availability.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-21T21:58:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MATEUS ASSIS MÁXIMO DE LIMA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGEE 2010..pdf: 3043385 bytes, checksum: 56a0d73a1dac569c7ed9a4ea7807abec (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T21:58:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MATEUS ASSIS MÁXIMO DE LIMA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGEE 2010..pdf: 3043385 bytes, checksum: 56a0d73a1dac569c7ed9a4ea7807abec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-03 / O atual paradigma de cuidado com a saúde já não suporta mais o crescente número de doentes crônicos. Uma vez que essas doenças apresentam um fator comportamental bem determinante, é necessário um monitoramento contínuo da saúde dos usuários. O monitoramento contínuo é inviável com o atual modelo de cuidados mundial. No tocante a isso, uma das abordagens mais promissoras é o autogerenciamento. Neste paradigma, o paciente se torna mais responsável pelo seu tratamento, tornando-se capaz de levar uma vida mais independente e desonerando o sistema de saúde. Observa-se portanto a possibilidade de utilizar dispositivos que acompanhem o usuário a qualquer lugar e a todo momento no contexto da saúde. Essa idéia define uma área de conhecimento denominada Pervasive Healthcare. Diversas abordagens vem sendo desenvolvidas neste sentido. Várias delas são estudadas neste trabalho e observa-se que um dos grandes problemas é a falta de interoperabilidade entre componentes que definem estas aplicações. Soluções são desenvolvidas sem observar maneiras de maximizar a reutilização de módulos por diversas aplicações. Isto implica num custo maior no desenvolvimento e acarreta numa grande necessidade da elaboração de arcabouços de software que disponibilizem mecanismos para tal. Neste trabalho apresenta-se um arcabouço para o desenvolvimento de aplicações pervasivas para suporte à prevenção e tratamento de doenças crônicas baseado em componentes de software. Ele visa dar suporte ao autogerenciamento utilizando conceitos de Pervasive Healthcare provendo uma ferramenta que facilite o desenvolvimento de aplicações e componentes de software que representam funcionalidades normalmente presentes em sistemas desse tipo. Além disso, leva-se em conta o suporte à evolução dinâmica da aplicação, além da implementação do arcabouço em linguagem multiplataforma para que possa ser executado em diferentes tipos de dispositivos móveis. Porfim, para guiar o desenvolvedor na utilização do arcabouço para o desenvolvimento de aplicações e de componentes, descreve-se o processo de desenvolvimento através de um estudo de caso. / The current paradigm of health care can no longer endure the growing number of chronically ill. Since these diseases have determinant a behavioral factor, a continuous monitoring of the health of users is necessary. Continuous monitoring is not feasible with the current model of worldwide care. With regard to this, one of the most promising approaches is the self-management. In this paradigm, the patient becomes more responsible for their treatment and become able to lead a more independent life, relieving the health system. It is observed therefore the possibility of using devices to monitor the user at any place and time in the context of health. This idea defines an area of knowledge called Pervasive Healthcare. Several approaches have been developed in this direction. Several of the mare studied in this work and it is observed that a major problem is the lack of interoperability between components that define these applications. Solutions are developed without following ways to maximize the reuse of modules for various applications. This implies a higher cost in development and brings a great need for development of software frameworks that provide mechanisms for this. This paper presents a framework for the development of pervasive applications to support the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases based on software components. It aims to support self-management using concepts of Pervasive Healthcare providing a tool that makes the development of application and software components that represent features normally found in such systems easier. Moreover, it takes account of the dynamic evolution support for the application, and the design of a cross-platform language framework that can be run on different types of mobile devices. Finally, to guide the developer in using the framework for the development of applications and components, the process of development through a case study is described.

Healthcare is a complex system under great pressure for meeting the patients’ needs. Implementing technology at inpatient wards might possibly support healthcare professionals and improve quality of care. However, these technologies might come with issues and the system might not be used as intended. This master thesis project investigates how healthcare professionals communicate at an inpatient ward and how this might be affected by implementing a Mobile Healthcare Solution (MHS). Further, it sought to question why healthcare professions might, or might not, use the MHS as a support of their daily work and what some reasons for this might be. Research methods were of qualitative approach. Field studies were performed at an inpatient ward and further, two healthcare professionals were interviewed. Grounded Theory (GT) was chosen as a method to process the data and obtain understanding for communication at the inpatient ward. The results showed that healthcare professionals communicate verbally, written and by reading, using different tools. The most prominent ways of communication were verbally, where it was common to report or discuss about a patient. The means for communication did not get drastically affected by implementing the MHS and reasons for this were of social, technical and organizational types. Some reasons for not using the MHS were habits and due to healthcare professionals perceiving the MHS as more time consuming than manual handling. However, a specific investigation of whether this might affect the usage of the MHS is yet needed