bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
E-Health and Digital Inclusion
Authors: Gibson Lorna , Sloan David , Moncur Wendy
Published: December 2012

In this chapter, we describe in detail the opportunities e-health can offer in the context of digital inclusion by reducing social exclusion and enhancing quality of life through thoughtful technology intervention. We highlight the problems that may emerge or persist if the design of e-health systems does not fully take into account the challenges of user access and adoption. We show how principles of user-centred and inclusive design can be used as a basis on which successful e-health systems can be developed and implemented and offer suggestions for how these principles can best influence design of future systems.
ICTS and Their Role in Health Promotion
Authors: Sabone Motshedisi B. , Mogobe Keitshokile D. , Sabone Tiny G.
Published: December 2012

This chapter presents findings of mini-survey that utilized an exploratory descriptive design to examine the accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and utility of ICTs with specific reference to health promotion for selected rural communities. Specifically, the study focused on access to radio, television, mobile phone, and Internet services at a level of effort and cost that is both acceptable to and within the means of a large majority in a given village. The findings indicate that ICTs gadgets explored have opened up possibility for health services and information to reach even people in the rural areas. Ultimately, access affects the general well-being of individuals. One of the major initiatives under the umbrella of health is improving access to health services and information; and this covers among other things, expanding the delivery of health information through the radio and television. This study confirms breakthrough in this respect. Challenges that accompany the use of these ICT gadgets include no connectivity in some areas and lack of training to use them.
Information Security Standards for Health Information Systems
Authors: Kotsonis Evangelos , Eliakis Stelios
Published: December 2012

Current developments in the field of integrated treatment show the need for IS security approaches within the healthcare domain. Health information systems are called to meet unique demands to remain operational in the face of natural disasters, system failures and denial-of-service attacks. At the same time, the data contained in health information systems are strictly confidential and, due to the ethical, judicial and social implications in case of data loss, health related data require extremely sensitive handling. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of information security management standards in the context of health care information systems and focus on the most widely accepted ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards for information security management. In the end of the chapter, a guide to develop a complete and robust information security management system for a health care organization will be provided, by mentioning special implications that are met in a health care organization, as well as special considerations related to health related web applications. This guide will be based on special requirements of ISO/IEC 27799:2008 (Health informatics — Information security management in health using ISO/IEC 27002).
RFID Applications in E-Healthcare
Authors: Watfa Mohamed K. , Kaur Manprabhjot , Daruwala Rashida Firoz
Published: December 2012

Pervasive healthcare is the ultimate goal of all healthcare facilities and e-healthcare is the most talked about medical assistance these days. Healthcare organizations are exploiting RFID to maximize use of tools and equipment, keep tabs on medicinal drugs, boost patient flow and plug gaps in patient safety. RFID technology has become a hot topic in all scientific areas and is entitled as a major enabling technology for the automation of many work processes involved in the health sector. This chapter talks about many singular RFID applications that have been successfully developed or are in development, particularly the ones designed for the healthcare industry. It also discusses issues related to technology and healthcare and measures to overcome them. Furthermore, the chapter gives insight on the future of RFID technology and what more it has to offer to the healthcare community in the future.
Generating Indicators for Diagnosis of Fault Levels by Integrating Information from Two or More Sensors
Authors: Zhao Xiaomin , Zuo Ming J , Moghaddass Ramin
Published: December 2012

Diagnosis of fault levels is an important task in fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. Two or more sensors are usually involved in a condition monitoring system to fully capture the health information on a machine. Generating an indicator that varies monotonically with fault propagation is helpful in diagnosis of fault levels. How to generate such an indicator integrating information from multiple sensors is a challenging problem. This chapter presents two methods to achieve this purpose, following two different ways of integrating information from sensors. The first method treats signals from all sensors together as one multi-dimensional signal, and processes this multi-dimensional signal to generate an indicator. The second method extracts features obtained from each sensor individually, and then combines features from all sensors into a single indicator using a feature fusion technique. These two methods are applied to the diagnosis of the impeller vane trailing edge damage in slurry pumps.
E-Health Communities for Learning Healthy Habits
Authors: Smedberg Åsa
Published: December 2012

There are e-health communities of many different kinds available on the Internet today. Some e-health communities are for people who need to change their established bad, or unhealthy, habits such as the ones for people suffering from overweight or smoking. To develop and maintain a healthier life-style is not an easy task to succeed with, it involves being able to change everyday situations. E-health communities can assist in this process through continuous interactions between community members. However, whether these e-health communities actively support learning depends on the ways they help community members reflect upon their habits, underlying reasons and motivational factors. In this chapter, the author presents a framework for how to evaluate these e-health communities from a learning perspective. The framework covers different types of conversation topics, ways to respond and community knowledge.
A Centralized Real-Time E-Healthcare System for Remote Detection and Prediction of Epileptic Seizures
Authors: Pham Dung V. , Halgamuge Malka N. , Nirmalathas Thas , Moran Bill
Published: December 2012

Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological disorders, affecting about 60 million people worldwide. There are currently about 220,000 Epilepsy patients in Australia, a significant proportion of whom are elderly and live in rural areas. In this chapter, we present the applications, requirements, solutions, and further research problems for a Centralized Real-time E-Healthcare System (CREHS) for Epilepsy patients in Australia, utilizing wearable wireless sensors and broadband technologies. Later, the authors propose, optimize, and validate biosensor devices to detect epileptic seizures. In addition, the chapter also provides a detailed description of the structures, features, and detailed implementation scenarios for the system.
Overview of the ISO/IEEE11073 Family of Standards and their Applications to Health Monitoring
Authors: Escayola J. , Trigo J.D. , Martínez I. , Martínez-Espronceda M. , Aragüés A. , Sancho D. , Led S. , Serrano L. , García J.
Published: December 2012

Traditional fields in health delivery such as chronic diseases or independent aging are evolving to novel healthcare applications like intra-hospital ecosystems and Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). Furthermore, emerging trends in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and evolution of the Medical Devices (MDs) to Personal Health Devices (PHDs) led towards the interoperability of new health services. In this patient-centered context, the international ISO/IEEE11073 (X73) family of standards is proposed to provide device usability enhancements. In this chapter, the X73 technical features and the new transport technology profiles specifically designed for X73 are introduced to provide an updated framework for developing highly efficient portable and wearable MDs and PHDs. Moreover, these protocol guidelines and technology features are applied to vital signs monitoring, pointing out some potential advantages for adopting new use cases such as NICUs where design requirements like ergonomics, reliability, size, power consumption and signal transmission become strict implementation constraints.
Advanced Video Distribution for Wireless E-Healthcare Systems
Authors: Zvikhachevskaya Anna , Mihaylova Lyudmila
Published: December 2012

This chapter is dedicated to the investigation of IEEE 802.16, a technology that would allow efficient, reliable and affordable healthcare. More specifically, the chapter presents not only an overview of the telemedicine services and developed technologies, but also provides a detailed description of the WiMAX wireless broadband technology for efficient video and data delivery. A new technique for efficient video distribution over WiMAX networks for healthcare applications is also presented in conjunction with some conclusive test results. The theoretical work is supported by in depth software simulations using a network simulator.
A Simple Web-Based Image Database System for Facilitating Medical Care in Dermatological Clinics
Authors: Toda Takeshi , Chen PaoMin , Ozaki Shinya , Fujita Kazunobu , Ideguchi Naoko
Published: December 2012

In Japan, electronic health record systems are gradually becoming popular at large hospitals, but are not yet frequently implemented in clinics. This is due to both prohibitive costs and a lack of interest in checking electronic health records on the part of patients. Doctors also may be opposed to showing patients their health records, as it then may require a doctor to let patients observe images to check for improvement of symptoms at follow-up. In this study, the authors developed a database system of dermatological images accessible to both doctors and patients. In this system, doctors can photograph affected skin areas and tag the images with keywords, such as patient ID or name, disease or diagnosis, symptoms, affected bodily regions, and free wards. The images and keyword tags are transmitted to a database housed on an Internet server. The authors implemented this system on a smartphone for quick and easy access during medical examination and on a tablet terminal for patients to use while waiting in the clinic. Using the tablet terminal, a doctor and patient may check for improvement of symptoms together.
Grid for Post Operative Care through Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Chowdhry N.P , Ashraf Adnan , Chowdhry B.S , Baloch A.K , Ansari A.W , De Meer H.
Published: December 2012

To address the solution for problems of e-health systems, the various new algorithms are developed. Today, the parallel and distributed programming concepts have motivated the doctors and technology experts for the development of e-health grid systems. This e-health grid system is expected to provide more efficient patient care system, better security and more dedicated links among patients, pharmaceutical companies and their experts. The chapter discusses the project significance of grid computing with its past, present and future in the perspective of e-health. The interdisciplinary research and development in the field of biochemistry, health care, information technology and biomedical engineering has enabled technologists to develop equipments and systems for patient monitoring at distances. The pharmaceutical companies, doctors and technology experts have been working for platforms with continuous connectivity for the treatment and post operative care for patients in homes and in hospitals. The practical significance of such developments shall be discussed in the Chapter including the exponential growth and exploration of new areas in post operative care systems where Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is playing a vital role. Moreover, the chapter explains that ‘how video conferencing or face to face examination of patient can be performed in the preview of e-learning’. Since, this e-health grid system contains varied parametric input and output and there is a need of data fusion system. The last, but not least, we discuss here the challenges and process of acquisition and retrieval of the abstract data types (medical images and different sonic beats) using web-portal and MIS e-health care systems.
Identifying the Essential Design Requirements for Usable E-Health Communities in Mobile Devices
Authors: Mendoza-González Ricardo , Martin Miguel Vargas , Rodríguez-Martínez Laura C.
Published: December 2012

We believe that well-designed and usable user interface is critical, as the adequate use and the effectiveness of any application usually depend on it, especially when a specific system is oriented to play a key role into the process of patients’ care (healthcare applications). Very good examples of healthcare applications are E-Health Communities, which are generally oriented to contribute in the process for improving the quality of life for members of a community suffering from chronic diseases. In order to contribute to previous efforts, we propose a set of 15 basic usability requirements specifically oriented to mobile interfaces for blog-based instant messaging e-health communities. We structured our set of usability requirements on two sources: Firstly we consider the survey-obtained feedback from 72 participants who regularly access social networks from mobile devices. Then we complemented this information with some ideas presented in previous research. We show the effectiveness of the proposal by using an illustrative example (designing an interface-prototype for a mobile e-health community) as a proof-of-concept together with a preliminary usability study. The prototype was entirely created by observing our usability requirements. The results of the study are encouraging and reflect a good correlation between the requirements proposed and the users’ perception. This seems to indicate that although this research-work is focused on providing a starting point to developers with guidance in designing usable interfaces for e-health communities accessed by mobile devices, our findings could be easily adapted and applied to other mobile scenarios for blog-based instant messaging applications.
“Developed in the South”
Authors: Shaw Vincent , Braa Jorn
Published: December 2012

The expansion of ICT across Africa is influenced by many factors including political imperatives, donor priorities, private sector and NGO needs, and economic interests and as a result takes place in a haphazard and largely uncontrolled fashion. The health sector is no exception. The challenge, as in many developing countries, is to provide a robust and reliable health information system while effecting a transition between paper-based systems and computerized systems. The transition involves not only the introduction of new ICT, and the accompanying social and educational transformations of people and processes that accompany the introduction of ICT, but also the development of scalable health information systems that can facilitate a smooth transition as ICT expansion and development takes place. This chapter draws on 10 years of experience of the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP), an action research orientated network of public health practitioners and academics who initiated a pilot project in health information systems development in the post-apartheid transformation of South Africa, and which has subsequently had a profound effect on the development of health information systems in Africa and Asia. Through an exploration of health information systems development in numerous countries in Africa, we highlight insights into approaches and methodologies that contribute to successful and sustainable health information systems in resource constrained settings.
End-User Participation in Health IT Development
Authors: Høstgaard Anna Marie Balling
Published: December 2012

Despite there being extensive cumulative knowledge and many experiences about factors that contribute to health Information Technology (HIT) success, lessons are yet to be learned as many HIT developments still face a number of problems - many of them of an organizational nature. This chapter presents a new method - the EUPHIT method – for studying and understanding one of the most crucial organizational success factors in HIT development: end-user participation. The method was developed and used for the first time throughout a research study of an EHR planning process in a Danish region. It has proved effective in disclosing the interactions that occur between the different social groups involved in HIT development, and in understanding the underlying reasons for these. This allows HIT project management to explore new avenues during the development process in order to support, facilitate, and improve real end-user participation.
Resolving and Mediating Ambiguous Contexts in Pervasive Environments
Authors: Roy Nirmalya , Das Sajal K. , Julien Christine
Published: December 2012

Pervasive computing applications envision sensor rich computing and networking environments that can capture various types of contexts of inhabitants of the environment, such as their locations, activities, vital signs, and environmental measures. Such context information is useful in a variety of applications, for example to manage health information to promote independent living in “aging-in-place” scenarios. In reality, both sensed and interpreted contexts are often ambiguous, leading to potentially dangerous decisions if not properly handled. Thus, a significant challenge facing the development of realistic and deployable context-aware services for pervasive computing applications is the ability to deal with these ambiguous contexts. In this chapter, the authors discuss a resource optimized quality assured ontology-driven context mediation framework for resource constrained sensor networks based on efficient context-aware data fusion and information theoretic sensor parameter selection for optimal state estimation. It has the ability to represent contexts according to the applications’ ontology and easily composable ontological rules to mediate ambiguous contexts.
Ubiquitous Information Therapy Service through Social Networking Libraries
Authors: Gavgani Vahideh Zarea
Published: December 2012

This chapter introduces a model for Information Therapy service through social networks. It discusses how health care providers including physicians, medical specialist and residents can prescribe reliable, evidence based health information to the patients in web 2.0 environment. How evidence based health information incorporated into freely available health information sources? How health information is disseminated to general public through collaboration of health information professional and health care professionals? How health literacy can be improved through social networking health information? And, how user driven health information is disseminated through web 2.0? Recent advances in Information and Communication Technology especially social applications of web 2.0 have given new possibilities and abilities to librarians in rendering better, faster and ubiquitous information services. At the same time, it has created an equivalent right to information for patients/care givers and health providers. Nowadays, the importance of availability and accessibility of health information in healthcare system is realized and emphasized by healthcare providers, policy makers as well as consumers. Provision of reliable, timely, evidence based, right health information to patients/caregivers/consumers in the course of Information Therapy is a necessity for National Health Systems in all countries. This chapter deals with the definition of Information Therapy, importance of information therapy, changes in the preference of information users on how to access right information, Web 2.0, application of Web 2.0 in rendering Information Therapy Service, and a proposal model for Information Therapy service through Web 2.0.
The Protocols of Privileged Information Handling in an E-Health Context
Authors: Fernando Juanita
Published: December 2012

Health authorities need to review the privacy and security of real-life work contexts before pioneering new, privileged information handling protocols as a foundation of a new national e-health scheme.
European E-Health Framework
Authors: Karamagkioli Korinna Zoi , Karamagioli Evika
Published: December 2012

European health systems are under mounting pressure to respond to the challenges of population ageing, citizens’ rising expectations, migration, and mobility of patients and health professionals. New technologies have the potential to revolutionize healthcare and health systems and to contribute to their future sustainability. However the organizational and regulatory environment of e-health has not progressed as rapidly as technology both in national and European level. The key issue in the European sphere is whether and to what extent it interferes with public health policy and should be treated separately from the more “traditional” healthcare. The proposed chapter will define e-health from a European perspective, present the different steps of the European policy in the field, insist on the organizational and regulatory issues that arise and discuss drives and barriers towards achieving pan European “patient-friendly” healthcare services.
A Strategic Approach to e-Health Interoperability Using e-Government Frameworks
Authors: Papadopoulos Thanos , Angelopoulos Spyros , Kitsios Fotis
Published: December 2012

E-government projects have a breadth of impact that extends far beyond their respective context. However, current e-Government methodologies and models used are only tailored to specific requirements. Despite the use of interoperability in e-government, there has been a paucity of literature on adapting e-government frameworks in the healthcare context and in e-health in particular. Aiming to fill this gap, this chapter justifies why interoperability frameworks currently used in e-government may be useful in e-health. Therefore, this study attempts to address the issues faced by surveying the models consisting of effective practices in e-Government IT integration management, as well as IT support. The overall aim of this chapter is to conduct a critical analysis of well-established e-Government models and frameworks. Understanding e-Government integration project management will ultimately help in the development of an effective practice model, which will improve e-Government implementation.
Developing a Competitive City through Healthy Decision-Making
Authors: Gudes Ori , Kendall Elizabeth , Yigitcanlar Tan , Han Jung Hoon , Pathak Virendra
Published: December 2012

This chapter investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with planning for a competitive city. The chapter is based on the assumption that a healthy city is a fundamental prerequisite for a competitive city. Thus, it is critical to examine the local determinants of health and factor these into any planning efforts. The main focus of the chapter is on e-health planning by utilising Web-based geographic decision support systems. The proposed novel decision support system would provide a powerful and effective platform for stakeholders to access essential data for decision-making purposes. The chapter also highlights the need for a comprehensive information framework to guide the process of planning for healthy cities. Additionally, it discusses the prospects and constraints of such an approach. In summary, this chapter outlines the potential insights of using an information science-based framework and suggests practical planning methods as part of a broader e-health approach for improving the health characteristics of competitive cities.
An E-Health System for Promoting Wellbeing in the Elderly
Authors: Botella Cristina , Baños Rosa M. , Etchemendy Ernestina , Castilla Diana , García-Palacios Azucena , Alcañiz Mariano
Published: December 2012

The disproportionate increase in the world’s aged population, especially in developed countries, is one of the biggest challenges for developing health and social development policies. Developed countries are starting to include e-health applications in their health policies; these are effective programs that can reach large numbers of people at a much lower economic cost. The “Butler System” is an e-health application designed specifically for older people and the health professionals who work with this population. The Butler System is a multi-user platform with various levels of action, which includes resources that enhance elderly users’ social integration, learning, socio-emotional networks, leisure and training in emotional regulation skills. Furthermore, the platform allows practitioners to continuously monitor older people’s emotional states and offers various clinical resources and therapeutic activities. Tools such as the Butler System could become integral to supporting and promoting healthy habits for the elderly and assisting the health professionals who work with this population.
Rural E-Health Infrastructure Development
Authors: Zalzala Ali , Chia Stanley , Zalzala Laura , Sahu Subrat , Vaghasiya Suresh , Karimi Ali
Published: December 2012

The following sections describe the implementation of a healthcare records system in rural areas of India’s Gujarat State. The system reduces the risk of misidentification of patients and allows for accessing the records of patients in a more timely process. The electronic medical records improve clinical and diagnostic services and provide alerts on disease trends.
An Overview of E-Health Development in Australia
Authors: Teoh Say Yen , Singh Mohini , Chong Josephine
Published: December 2012

This chapter is a discussion of e-health development in Australia. The Australian government has been very proactive in e-government and applications of e-government such as e-health in the last five years. E-health is an important application of e-government in Australia for innovation of the public sector, as well as due to its very sparsely populated large rural areas. E-health development in this chapter is analysed using Layne and Lee’s (2001) e-government development model due to the similarities in the stages of development of both applications. This chapter illustrates that in Australia e-health development is mostly at the informational stage. It also indicates that e-health developments can be established in four stages of information; transaction; vertical and horizontal integration of services.
Brazilian Occupational Therapy Perspective about Digital Games as an Inclusive Resource to Disabled People in Schools
Authors: Siqueira Suzana Rocha , Rocha Eliane Cristina de Freitas , Nery Marcelo Souza
Published: December 2012

This chapter aims at contributing to serious games studies taking into consideration two aspects: “as a tool of social change” and as “applications of serious games: in health care and e-health, education, and other fields.” There have been many studies and applications of serious games in the fields of education and health; however, there is still a lack of studies on social inclusion. It is said, based on a wide review of the literature on the subject, that games can help the construction of the inclusive school, showing new applications for serious games. New guidelines for serious game applications are presented, as well as a new interface between the development of serious games and Occupational Therapy; the latter is the area of health specialised in the knowledge of human activities for clinical intervention.
E-Health Knowledge Management by Australian University Students
Authors: Usher Wayne , San Too Lay
Published: December 2012

This study is the first research project to investigate Australian university students’ e-health knowledge management trends. An online survey was developed (http://www.limesurvey.org) to collect both quantitative and qualitative empirical data. The survey was promoted via Facebook and 2 broadcast emails to students’ email accounts who were attending Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia (Arts, Education & Law). Two hundred and seventy-five (275) responses were included for analysis. A profile which emerged identifies that the majority of participants used the Internet to search for personal health information, used a random search engine, accessed online health information every few months, would mostly spend more than 1-15 minutes in reading it, with the majority accessing health topics concerning, 1) specific diseases, 2) medical treatment, and 3) health services. Australian university health services could benefit from understandings pertaining to students’ e-health knowledge management usage trends to meet their personal health concerns. It seems plausible to claim that reliable websites, designed and managed by university health services, should have a predominant position among interventions which are specifically aimed to address students’ health concerns.
An Exploration of the Experiences of Migrant Women
Authors: Fitzpatrick Jane
Published: December 2012

Women across the world migrate for a wide range of reasons. Some gravitate to urban centres in their own countries seeking safety, education, health care, and employment opportunities. Others travel across national boundaries seeking reprieve from the atrocities of war and extreme poverty. Migration within countries is on the rise, as people move in response to adverse conditions such as lack of resources, services and education, and employment opportunities. In addition they may want to escape from violence or natural disasters. This movement of people from rural to urban areas has resulted in an explosive growth of cities around the globe. This paper draws on a research case study undertaken with the Kewapi language group in Port Moresby and the Batri Villages of the Southern Highlands in Papua New Guinea. It seeks to highlight the perspectives of women traveling vast distances from their home communities in order to seek education and health care. It explores the implications for developing effective service user focused health care systems designed to meet the needs of mobile and vulnerable women. The study suggests that if women and their families from remote rural communities are encouraged and facilitated in participating in health promoting initiatives they can dramatically improve their life and health experiences and that of their community.
The Development of the English National Health Information Infrastructure
Authors: Constantinides Panos
Published: December 2012

This chapter draws on a secondary analysis of publicly available data on the development of the English National Program for IT (NPfIT). This analysis focuses on the multilevel context, action arena, and outcomes in the NPfIT case, placing great emphasis on the property rights put forward and negotiated between key stakeholder groups. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the consequences of these negotiations for the English NPfIT and other such national information infrastructure projects.
The Development of a Regional Health Information Infrastructure in Greece
Authors: Constantinides Panos
Published: December 2012

This chapter draws on empirical research carried out during the years 2003-2006 on the development of a regional health information infrastructure in Greece. Using the theoretical framework, this chapter examines the multilevel context, action arena, and outcomes in the case, placing great emphasis on the property rights put forward and negotiated between key stakeholder groups, as they strive to develop an information infrastructure. Drawing on the more recent outcomes of these negotiations, the chapter concludes with an analysis of the consequences of these outcomes for the region of Greece, and more broadly, for European Information Society programmes.
Case Studies in Customization of E-Health Services
Authors: Kardaras Dimitris K. , Karakostas Bill
Published: December 2012

This chapter discusses existing service customization projects in the health sector. It first defines e-health and compiles a list of personal health management applications that range from those that provide access to electronic health records and health information, to community interaction and social media environments, and finally to decision support tools for disease management. It presents examples of e-health services that have adopted customization/ personalization techniques as the means to provide better service, such as those from the National Health System (NHS) in the UK, and online portals such as Healthspace, DiasNet, and others. This chapter concludes with the presentation of a framework for acceptance of personalized e-health services by patients and citizens.
From Idea to Use
Authors: Enquist Henrik
Published: December 2012

The objective of the case study presented here was to develop and investigate the use of a novel e-health technology called the Memory Stone. This personal device was intended to be used for storing information and enabling communication with the healthcare information system. It would also serve as an intimate repository during the pregnancy, and as such, function as a learning tool during the course of a pregnancy. Using a participatory design approach, the work was performed in collaboration between a multidisciplinary research team, ten pregnant women, and eight healthcare professionals including midwives, general practitioners and medical specialists. In this chapter, some more or less problematic issues encountered during the case study will be discussed and put forward as topics to be considered in future research concerning e-health technology. This discussion includes areas such as initiative versus creativity, methodological issues, stakeholder interests, and other difficulties when introducing novel information technology in a healthcare context.
Stomodeum to Proctodeum
Authors: Bhattacharya Paramartha , Asanga Amar Puri , Biswas Rakesh
Published: December 2012

This chapter contains physician and patient perspectives of their gastrointestinal system problem solving experiences beginning from one anatomical end, stomodeum and continuing toward the other end proctodeum of the gastrointestinal tube. These experiences reflect user driven health care to the extent that they have been largely shared and developed over a web interface through email narratives and illustrate conversational learning in a patient centered manner.
Conceiving Community Knowledge Records as e-Governance Concerns in Wired Healthcare Provision
Authors: VAT Kam Hou
Published: December 2012

This article investigates the potential of community knowledge records (CKRs) in the electronic transformation for healthcare provision in Macau. Of specific interest is the electronic governance (e-governance) context to examine the various information and communications technologies (ICTs) for personalized healthcare support, such as the electronic health (or e-health) records (EHR). From a governance perspective, the installation of ICT-based e-health support must begin with the healthcare concerns of citizens. The challenge is to identify the organizational context of e-health provision, lying in the realm of e-governance, and referring mainly to the decisions that define expectations, enable empowerment, and verify performance of the systems involved. The goal of this chapter is to explore the context of citizens’ e-health provision, including the EHRs considered as the digital records of personal medical history, accumulated from cradle to death. Elaborated are the issues of privacy that must be rendered in proper perspective where e-governance is to install a trustworthy electronic system of healthcare administration. The discussion around the e-governance concerns of any attempt to install e-health services based on the legitimate use of personal EHRs, should provide a sense-making perspective to interpret the e-health challenge of the contemporary knowledge society.
Identity Management and Audit Trail Support for Privacy Protection in E-Health Networks
Authors: Peyton Liam , Hu Jun
Published: December 2012

E-health networks can enable integrated healthcare services and data interoperability in the form of electronic health records accessible via Internet technology. Efficiency and quality of care can be improved for example by: streamlining administrative processes involving prescriptions and insurance payments; providing remote access to specialists through telemedicine; or correlating data from clinics, pharmacies and emergency rooms to detect potential adverse events. However, a major requirement to enable adoption of e-health networks is the ability to address issues around security, privacy and trust in a systematic manner. In particular, privacy legislation, regulatory guidelines, and organizational policies require that a framework for privacy protection must be established. Federated identity management can be used to systematically protect patient and health care provider identities in a single sign on framework that controls access to patient data, but an audit trail and reporting mechanism is needed in order to ensure and validate compliance. In this chapter, the authors use example e-health scenarios to analyze the legal, business and technical issues that need to be addressed.
Evaluation Considerations for E-Health Systems
Authors: Kastania Anastasia N.
Published: December 2012

E-health evaluation, which involves different dimensions, has increased. In traditional healthcare, quality dimensions exist but these are not sufficiently exploited for e-health. Reliability is often examined regarding technology, software, demand and survival. This chapter reviews the reasons that e-health systems need to be evaluated, the methods followed for conducting e-health evaluation studies and the main points that characterize an evaluation procedure as successful. Many researchers have presented evaluation considerations for e-health. Herein, the emphasis is on analyzing a series of ideas mined from the scientific literature that allows drawing up practical considerations for e-health evaluation. These considerations focus both on quality and reliability assurance as well as on quality and reliability improvement.
Privacy and Security in e-Health Applications
Authors: Petkovic Milan , Ibraimi Luan
Published: December 2012

The introduction of e-Health and extramural applications in the personal healthcare domain has raised serious concerns about security and privacy of health data. Novel digital technologies require other security approaches in addition to the traditional “purely physical” approach. Furthermore, privacy is becoming an increasing concern in domains that deal with sensitive information such as healthcare, which cannot absorb the costs of security abuses in the system. Once sensitive information about an individual’s health is uncovered and social damage is done, there is no way to revoke the information or to restitute the individual. Therefore, in addition to legal means, it is very important to provide and enforce privacy and security in healthcare by technological means. In this chapter, the authors analyze privacy and security requirements in healthcare, explain their importance and review both classical and novel security technologies that could fulfill these requirements.
Foundations of Trust for E-Health
Authors: Corritore Cynthia L. , Kracher Beverly , Wiedenbeck Susan , Marble Robert
Published: December 2012

Trust has always been an important element of healthcare. As healthcare evolves into ehealth, a question arises: What will the nature of trust be in ehealth? In this chapter the authors provide the reader with a foundation for considering this question from a research perspective. The authors focus on one ehealth domain: online websites. The chapter begins with a high-level overview of the body of offline trust research. Next, findings related to online trust are presented, along with a working definition. Trust research in the context of online health care is then examined, although this body of work is in its infancy. A detailed discussion of our research in the area of online trust is then presented. Finally, with this background, we take the reader through some possible research questions that are interesting candidates for future research on the nature of trust in ehealth.
Implementation Issues on a National Electronic Health Record Network
Authors: McGaha John
Published: December 2012

The United States congress and the past several administrations have dedicated considerable funding for incentives focused on accelerating the adoption by the healthcare industry of Health Information Technology (HIT) solutions. The most recent effort towards these objectives includes a focus on the creation of a National Health Information Network that will support large scale exchange of health information. This chapter explores the technical, security and privacy implications of the advent of such an integrated network and the steps towards its successful completion.
Caught in the Web
Authors: Bauer Keith A.
Published: December 2012

The social consequences of the internet are profound. Evidence of this can easily be found in the enormous body of literature discussing its impact on democracy, globalization, social networking, and education. The implications of the internet for medicine have likewise received a great deal of attention from policy makers, clinicians and technology theorists. Medical privacy, in particular, has garnered the lion’s share of attention. Nevertheless, research in this area has been lacking because it either fails to unpack the conceptual and ethical complexities of privacy or overestimates the power of technology and policy to protect our medical privacy. The aims of this chapter are twofold. The first is to provide a nuanced explication of the concept of privacy, and, second, to argue that e-medicine and the policies supposedly designed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal health information fail to do so and in some instances make their violations easier to commit.
Reframing Dichotomies
Authors: Hoshi Kei
Published: December 2012

The aim of this chapter is to propose a new way to meaningfully bridge the dichotomy between technological and human concerns in the context of E-health systems. We see ‘Design’ as having the responsibility to ensure that humans can fulfill themselves in the world of things (or technology). First, this chapter raises issues surrounding human-centered design of E-health, caused by three major dichotomies which create imbalances that have caused a lack of true human-centered-ness: (1) the human-user dichotomy, (2) the virtual-physical dichotomy, and (3) the experiential-practical dichotomy. Second, this chapter reframes a categorization of customer, user, person and human, which allows us to discover new aspects of ‘humans’ and of true ‘Human-centered design’. Third, the concept of Tangible Presence in Blended Reality Space, an emerging integration of HCI concerns and Mediated Presence research, is introduced. Finally, the author proposes a new way of approaching human-centered design, what they call Human-Experiential Design, through which the experiential-practical dichotomy is effectively blended. The author believes that this view will be significantly important in attempts to go a further step in the development of better E-health, capitalizing on seamless combinations of the virtual and the physical in blended reality. Such blends will release human beings from the strain that existing dichotomies bring.
Unlearning and Relearning in Online Health Education
Authors: Sarbadhikari Suptendra Nath
Published: December 2012

This chapter discusses the role of integrating medical education with medical practice through online collaborative learning among the various stakeholders involved with healthcare education and practice. It elaborates the discussion with examples of information needs and information-seeking behaviors of patients and physicians. The role of the Internet (infrastructure), and especially the WWW (applications and content), is elucidated with respect to the concepts of online collaborative learning as applied to medical education and practice where the emphasis is on user driven healthcare. “
The Concept of Interoperability for AAL Systems
Authors: Kolovou Lamprini T. , Lymberopoulos Dimitrios K.
Published: December 2012

e-Health considers the healthcare environment as an electronic workspace where different Medical Information Systems (MIS) supports the automation of information processing, the exchange of medical and administrative data and the automation of medical workflow. AAL systems are MISs of special purposes that use wireless technology to provide healthcare to citizens. By their nature AAL systems are totally distributed, they include various medical and other users’ devices and the mobility of people increases their complexity and creates advanced requirements for the communication of data. Effectiveness and functionality of AAL premise interoperability at all levels of communication. In this chapter the definitions of interoperability are examined and how these are specialized for the healthcare area as well. In addition, the applied technologies and some significant issues that regard interoperability are analyzed.
Privacy Considerations for Electronic Health Records
Authors: Kuehler Mary , Schimke Nakeisha , Hale John
Published: December 2012

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are a powerful tool for healthcare providers and patients. Both groups benefit from unified, easily accessible record management; however, EHR systems also bring new threats to patient privacy. The reach of electronic patient data extends far beyond the healthcare realm. Patients are managing their own health records through personal health record (PHR) service providers, and businesses outside of the healthcare industry are finding themselves increasingly linked to medical data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule and other regulatory measures establish baseline standards for protecting patient privacy, but the inclusion of medical images in patient records presents unique challenges. Medical images often require specialized management tools, and some medical images may reveal a patient’s identity or medical condition through re-linkage or inherent identifiability. After exploring EHR systems in-depth and reviewing health information policy, the chapter explores how privacy challenges associated with EHR systems and medical images can be mitigated through the combined efforts of technology, policy, and legislation designed to reduce the risk of re-identification.