On middleware for emerging health services
Healthcare concerns have become diverse, ranging from acute and chronic conditions to lifestyle, wellbeing and the prevention of illness. Increasingly, individuals are taking responsibility for monitoring their own conditions. Healthcare technologies are increasingly used not only for administration, but also in specialist treatments and many forms of monitoring, including when a person is mobile. As well as formal interactions with professional carers and results from specialist procedures, care may involve ad hoc interactions with an individuals community. Together, these yield a wealth of data relevant in different contexts. Unfortunately, many existing healthcare systems are inflexible, single-purpose, and self-contained, so that we cannot fully realise their potential. We believe that a framework for flexible interoperability of healthcare-relevant components is crucial, in a time of increasing need from an ageing population.
middleware healthcare e-health assisted living management policy enforcement dynamic reconfiguration event-based systems pervasive computing security privacy internet of things sbus