The concept of the project taken from Telemedicine. It is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred through interactive audiovisual media for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations. Telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as complex as using satellite technology and videoconferencing equipment to conduct a real-time consultation between medical specialists in two different countries. Telemedicine generally refers to the use of communications and information technologies for the delivery of clinical care. Care at a distance (also called in absentia care), is an old practice which was often conducted via post. There has been a long and successful history of in absentia health care which, thanks to modern communication technology, has evolved into what we know as modern telemedicine. In its early manifestations, African villagers used smoke signals to warn people to stay away from the village in case of serious disease. In the early 1900s, people living in remote areas in Australia used two-way radios, powered by a dynamo driven by a set of bicycle pedals, to communicate with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia / Advances in sensor technology, personal mobile devices, and wireless broadband communications are enabling the development of an integrated personal mobile health monitoring system that can provide patients with a useful tool to assess their own health and manage their personal health information anytime and anywhere. Personal mobile devices, such as PDAs and mobile phones, are becoming more powerful integrated information management tools and play a major role in many people's lives. Here I focus on designing a Mobile health-monitoring system for people who stay alone at home or suffering from Heart Disease. This system presents a complete unified and mobile platform based connectivity solution for unobtrusive health monitoring. Developing a hardware which will sense heart rate and temperature of a patient, using Bluetooth modem all information lively transmitted to smart phone, from smart phone all information transmitted to server using GPRS. At server the received data compared with the standard threshold minimum and maximum value. The normal range of heart rate is 60 to 135 and the temperature of the patient is said to be normal above 95^F and below 104^F. If at all the rate increases above 145 or decreases below 55,it may be fatal and if it crossed this threshold limit then SMS will be sent to the relative of patient and Doctors along with measured values. The build-in GPS further provides the position information of the monitored person. The remote server not only collects physiological measurements but also tracks the position of the monitored person in real time. For transmitting data from Smartphone to the server using GPRS, here we need to create a website on data will be continuously transmitted from Smartphone to the website and from website data will be downloaded continuously on the server. Thus the system helps in tracking down the patient without getting the patient into any sort of communication. Undue mishaps can be avoided within the golden hours after a patient is struck with a heart attack.

This dissertation describes a mixed-methods study that examines the usability of telemedicine provider interfaces. This study consisted of content analysis, survey, and think aloud methodologies, which afford a multifaceted corpus of data for which to draw inferences and identify design features and functions that negatively impact usability. Usability is a critical component of the user experience with a telemedicine provider interface and can suede or impede the acceptance and adoption of telemedicine. Telemedicine has the potential to increase quality healthcare access and positive health outcomes for individuals who use it, and usability is a key component of technology acceptance and effective use. Empirical testing of health information technology (HIT) and telemedicine is advocated for as it is the most valuable method of research to understand humans' cognitive processing of information as they interact with technology. In addition, using activity theory and mobile interface theory as a lens in which to understand human activities and interaction with telemedicine provider interfaces, including the telemedicine provider websites and their mobile-responsive websites in this study, is an effective tool for drawing reasonable inferences regarding the usability of telemedicine communications. Considering the rate at which an unprecedented amount of health information becomes available online and HIT facilitates the delivery of healthcare, usability testing and user-centered, iterative design practices become increasingly essential in order to design effective—and safe—health information and technology that enhance the patient-experience, the affordability and accessibility of healthcare, health literacy and patient empowerment, and positive health outcomes. Usability testing plays an increasingly important role in characterizing obstacles to achieving these initiatives of the modern patient-centered health paradigm and telemedicine. The mixed-methods usability testing performed in this study offers a principled approach to usability testing and is ecologically valid because it involves real human subjects. This study fulfills a void in research on the usability of telemedicine communications and reveals usability problems that may not be anticipated by designers of HIT and health information providers. Drawing from the insight gained from this mixed-method study, design features and functions that enhance the usability of health communications are offered. This study draws insight from the human factors, technical communication, and health and medical fields to develop systematic, practical usability testing methods that can be replicated and applied in many fields. The design recommendations resulting from this study will be valuable to programmers; systems analysts; clinicians and nurses; technical communicators; information architects; visual designers; and others in similar roles.

As personal health care devices like blood pressure monitors, glucose monitors, thermometers are becoming more intelligent, with wireless communication abilities, there exists a huge potential for mobile applications that can aid users in their home health care. These mobile applications can talk wirelessly to the health devices via protocols like Bluetooth, Zigbee etc. and simplify daily tasks for users like logging daily readings, creating alerts, reminders, tracking supplies, messaging care-providers etc. This report will explore the design and architecture for the development of such a mobile application. A remote, integrated, web service can provide storage, web access, and analysis for the data, retrieved by the application, from personal health devices. The report will explore IEEE standards that define a standard format for information exchanged to/from these devices. It will also delve into security and privacy considerations in the system for patient health data. / text

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Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2006.

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<p>The aim of this thesis is to develop a Java web application with MySql that provides a useful tool for those people that have to handle with diabetes in their normal life.</p><p>The idea is that both patients and doctors will use this prototype for exchanging useful information and thus reduce some of the multiple inconvenient that this disease has.</p><p>The solution proposed in this project can be generalized to cover other aspects of the communication between the patient and the doctor.</p>

Abstract Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions (e.g. e-health, telemedicine, e-education) are often viewed as vehicles to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban healthcare centres and to resolve shortcomings in the rural health sector. This study focused on factors perceived to infl uence the uptake and use of ICTs as e-health solutions in selected rural Eastern Cape healthcare centres, and on structural variables relating to these facilities and processes. Attention was also given to two psychological variables that may underlie an individual’s acceptance and use of ICTs: usefulness and ease of use. Recommendations are made with regard to how ICTs can be used more effectively to improve health systems at fi ve rural healthcare centres where questionnaire and interview data were collected: St. Lucy’s Hospital, Nessie Knight Hospital, the Tsilitwa Clinic, the Madzikane Ka-Zulu Memorial Hospital and the Nelson Mandela General Hospital.

As the need for faster, safer and more efficient healthcare delivery increases, medical consultants seek new ways of implementing a high quality telemedical system, using innovative technology. Until today, teleconsultation (the most common application of Telemedicine) was performed by transferring the patient from the Accidents and Emergency ward, to a specially equipped room, or by moving large and heavy machinery to the place where the patient resided. Both these solutions were unpractical, uneconomical and potentially dangerous. At the same time wireless networks became increasingly useful in point-of-care areas such as hospitals, because of their ease of use, low cost of installation and increased flexibility. This thesis presents an integrated system called MedLAN dedicated for use inside the A&E hospital wards. Its purpose is to wirelessly support high-quality live video, audio, high-resolution still images and networks support from anywhere there is WLAN coverage. It is capable of transmitting all of the above to a consultant residing either inside or outside the hospital, or even to an external place, thorough the use of the Internet. To implement that, it makes use of the existing IEEE 802.11b wireless technology. Initially, this thesis demonstrates that for specific scenarios (such as when using WLANs), DICOM specifications should be adjusted to accommodate for the reduced WLAN bandwidth. Near lossless compression has been used to send still images through the WLANs and the results have been evaluated by a number of consultants to decide whether they retain their diagnostic value. The thesis further suggests improvements on the existing 802.11b protocol. In particular, as the typical hospital environment suffers from heavy RF reflections, it suggests that an alternative method of modulation (OFDM) can be embedded in the 802.11b hardware to reduce the multipath effect, increase the throughput and thus the video quality sent by the MedLAN system. Finally, realising that the trust between a patient and a doctor is fundamental this thesis proposes a series of simple actions aiming at securing the MedLAN system. Additionally, a concrete security system is suggested, that encapsulates the existing WEP security protocol, over IPSec.

Abstract Telemedicine (TM) is a term that describes the delivery of healthcare over distances. TM has evolved along with communication technology, creating a model of TM healthcare delivery that is constantly changing. The primary advantage of TM is that it gives physicians the ability to reach out to patients remotely, providing healthcare to remote or isolated locations, thus greatly reducing the need for patient travel. The physician is the primary stakeholder of TM, but to date there is a paucity of research related to TM utilization by physicians. Specifically, it is not known whether TM is an efficient healthcare tool that allows more patients to be seen by a physician than could normally be seen face to face (F2F), hence increasing the potential volume of patient care. This study describes the adoption and utilization characteristics within a “real” medical environment (the Ontario Ministry of Long-term Health Care) by analyzing established medical practices. Using OHIP data, this study shows TM utilization trends among physicians who were responsible for a large portion of TM patient activity within their respective specialties between 2011 and 2013. By understanding TM usage by physicians, the ministry can provide programs and incentives that may increase TM adoption, thus providing more efficient healthcare to underserviced populations in Ontario. The top three specialties from 2008-2013 using TM in Ontario were found to be General and Family (G&F) practice, Internal Medicine and Psychiatry, with G&F physicians using TM primarily to increase practice volumes for addiction medicine. Within the Internal Medicine specialty, TM appears to be a tool for healthcare delivery that helps offset some F2F events. Within the specialty of Psychiatry, many TM events seemed to have been performed by psychiatrists who have smaller volumes of F2F visits compared to their peers. Trends in TM show that for some specialties and types of clinical events, TM can be used to see more patients than physicians could normally see when restricted to F2F visits only, thus reducing the number of F2F visits within some practices. / Thesis / Master of Health Sciences (MSc)