A telemedicine system for remote health and activity monitoring for the elderly.

Full Abstract

The aging population is placing increasing pressure on healthcare services around the world. Telemedicine, which provides medical information or healthcare services at a distance using telecommunication technologies, is of growing interest to governments and healthcare providers. Existing telemedicine systems are primarily for medical information sharing and consultation with no teleoperation capabilities for activity monitoring. Moreover, the equipment of most systems available to support older patients to stay in their living environment must be tied to a fixed location, which severely limits their feasibility and applicability. In this paper, a new telemedicine structure is introduced for regular and ad hoc health monitoring services. In particular, it aims at scenarios where frequent interactive contacts between patients and professionals are required. This system incorporates several different networking technologies that work harmoniously to facilitate data communication, which potentially have a profound impact on the method of delivering medical service remotely. Another unique characteristic of the developed system is its capabilities of adaptation to network conditions, such as network congestion and availability of bandwidth. The concept of the proposed structure is validated using a laboratory-based test platform with some pilot experiments. Preliminary results demonstrate its feasibility for remote health monitoring services of the elderly. The potential benefits of the system are also presented.

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Author information

Author/s: Liu, Polley R (PR); Meng, Max Q-H (MQ); Liu, Peter X (PX); Tong, Fanny F L (FF); Chen, X J (XJ);

Affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Division, Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. rliu(-atsign-)ee.cuhk.edu.hk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association (Telemed J E Health), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Dec; vol 12 (issue 6) : pp 622-31

Dates: Created 2007/01/25; Completed 2007/02/20;

PMID: 17250483, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Health Personnel - organization & administration
Humans
Internet - instrumentation; organization & administration

Internet - instrumentation; organization & administration
Monitoring, Ambulatory - instrumentation; methods
Telemedicine - instrumentation; organization & administration
User-Computer Interface

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