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Euro-Mediterranean medical informatics and telemedicine 2013
This conference is the 9th of its kind on the Mediterranean region. This edition will provide a forum to discuss achievements and current experiences in specific areas in medical informatics and telemedicine, focusing on innovation methods and approaches. Its overall goal is to increase interaction and collaboration among professionals from both health and information technology sectors within and between the Mediterranean countries for scientific and social development in the region. The Euromediterranean Medical Informatics and TeleMedicine conference series have provided a forum for discussions and an environment that fosters creation of new collaboration in an interdisciplinary environment. They led to the emergence of the Euro-Mediterranean Medical Informatics and Telemedicine Association and number of regional cooperation. We hope that this year conference will accomplish the expectations announced in the previous ones, and will enhance collaboration between all participants coming from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The organization of the EMMIT 2013 Conference in Morocco has come together through the hard work of the local organizing committee, together with the International Institute of Tele-Medicine personnel and members of Euro-Mediterranean Medical Informatics and Tele-Medicine Association. The overall plans were overseen by a steering committee and the program was put together through the work of the scientific committee chaired by Prof. Francesco Sircurello. We are very grateful to all our sponsors, particularly to the Moroccan Ministry of Health that accepted to offer its patronage to the event, The University Mohammed First, The Faculty of Medicine of Oujda, The Faculty of Sciences of Oujda, The School of Engineering, The Faculty of Medicine of Fes and The MarchicaMed agency. We are also excited about the list of participants who are coming in from the Mediterranean and around the world. Finally, we would like to add our welcome to all of you to the beautiful Mediterranean city of Nador, Morocco, the Kingdom of solidarity, peace and hospitality.
Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, open industry organization of healthcare and technology companies joining together in collaboration to improve the quality of personal healthcare. With more than 200members companies around the world, Continua is dedicated to establishing a system of interoperable personal connected health solutions with the knowledge that extending those solutions into the home fosters independence, empowers individuals and provides the opportunity for truly personalized health and wellness management. [1]When you look at complete list of Continua Certified TM http://www.continuaalliance.org/node/77, you cannot find any ECG device (at the time of writing), but need ECG asa useful screening tool for a variety of cardiac abnormalities. We decided to build the prototype of 3-5-lead ECG with Bluetooth LE and USB interface. The firmware of the device was developed according the ISO/EEE 11073-10406:2011[11] and this device as a agent can communicate with any manager device on Personal Area Network. The filters of the device (50/60 Hz , low and high pass) are programmable and can be remotely configured. The signals from electrodes can be routed to doctor computer's screen for online diagnostic, can be save in EHR system or sent to special computer with LabView for ECG signal processing with different algorithms. This prototype could be used as a X73 agent for other consumer medical applications.
Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, open industry organization of healthcare and technology companies joining together in collaboration to improve the quality of personal healthcare. With more than 200members companies around the world, Continua is dedicated to establishing a system of interoperable personal connected health solutions with the knowledge that extending those solutions into the home fosters independence, empowers individuals and provides the opportunity for truly personalized health and wellness management. [1]When you look at complete list of Continua Certified TM http://www.continuaalliance.org/node/77, you cannot find any ECG device (at the time of writing), but need ECG asa useful screening tool for a variety of cardiac abnormalities. We decided to build the prototype of 3-5-lead ECG with Bluetooth LE and USB interface. The firmware of the device was developed according the ISO/EEE 11073-10406:2011[11] and this device as a agent can communicate with any manager device on Personal Area Network. The filters of the device (50/60 Hz , low and high pass) are programmable and can be remotely configured. The signals from electrodes can be routed to doctor computer's screen for online diagnostic, can be save in EHR system or sent to special computer with LabView for ECG signal processing with different algorithms. This prototype could be used as a X73 agent for other consumer medical applications.
Looking into the futures of eHealth? Diagnoses made by machine learning algorithms, medical consultations via video call, mobile health apps, fitness trackers, smartwatches and sensors built into our clothes or even our bodies: This publication strives to take a look at potential, likely, desired, anticipated or feared futures of digital health technologies and practices. Analysing the opportunities and risks associated with them is highly complex and involves both social and cultural as well as legal questions that in many instances are highly interwoven with each other. The social and cultural challenges include the tendencies towards a seemingly universal datafication, the invasion and loss of privacy and the valorisation of data as well as questions around surveillance and control, a more (de-)personalised healthcare and patient autonomy. The central legal challenge surrounding eHealth is uncertainty, especially in cross-border contexts, often accompanied by the fact that existing legal frameworks may not fit seamlessly with novel technologies or existing laws may be silent with respect to eHealth technologies. In this edited volume, researchers from various countries and disciplines discuss these issues and provide insights into the uses and perceptions of eHealth applications, the contexts of innovative technologies and offer comparative analyses of international legal frameworks.
Over the past decade, rapid integration of new computer systems and information technology takes place both in the State's and public authorities' activities, and in various social spheres. As of today, development and implementation of high technology and informatization process in various areas of social activities lead to drastic increase in the living standards of population. The healthcare sector is not an exception in this regard. Due to this, application of high technologies in medical activity including provision of medical care using telemedicine becomes particularly apparent. It is worth noting that European countries have a wealth of experience in using telemedicine, while Russia is still at the initial stage of creation and implementation of such information technologies in healthcare. Russian laws and regulations governing organization of telemedicine are still at the phase of discussion and approval. The purpose of this article is to consider problematic issues related to legal regulation of telemedicine both in foreign countries and in Russia, as well as to conclude whether solutions applied abroad to overcome legal gaps in telemedicine can be applied in Russia.
The relevance of personal data protection in telemedicine is predetermined by rapid development of information technologies in different spheres, including health care. The key issue is that current legal framework for personal data protection does not adequately meet the needs of telemedicine. Rather than facilitating technological development the law creates unreasonable barriers for introducing innovations in health care. Modern information and communication technologies require a free, secure and legitimate information exchange among all actors of telemedicine relationships.
The article contains recommendations on improving legislation on personal data for facilitating telemedicine development. The paper mainly focuses on the principles of personal data protection in telemedicine (requirements for informed consent, purposes of processing, special rules for data controllers and data processors, obligations to ensure confidentiality and security, etc.).
In particular, it is proposed to eliminate the mandatory requirement of written consent for processing special categories of personal data; to establish special grounds for personal data processing in telemedicine purposes; to differentiate the processing of personal data in telemedicine depending on the consent requirement ("without consent" "without consent, but with option to refuse processing", "with consent"). It is necessary to set the legal status of telemedicine entities and possibly impose special obligations for personal data processing performed by these entities. In addition, it is important to establish industry standards for security of health information systems taking into account specific threats typical to telemedicine technologies.
The article also focuses on the Russian legislative approach to health information systems that are crucial for telemedicine. The thesis is supported that legislation in this area should facilitate integration and interoperability of health information systems, expand applicability of these systems and increase the role of patients in management of personal electronic health records.
Methodological basis of research includes analysis of legislation and draft laws on corresponding issues, comparative legal method (in some aspects Russian experience is considered in comparison with experience of the EU and USA) and method of legal modeling (amendments to Russian legislation are proposed).
Summary Objective of the Paper: To find ways to meet the need for specifying terminology and developing a format to describe knowledge in specific subject areas (SA) that will be effective, easily-accessible and clear for both people and programs. This is related to terms, their relationships, models of ECG devices, filters, etc. Key Points: The use of ontology facilitates the following: - a repeated use of knowledge in SA; - a differentiation of the knowledge related to SA from operational knowledge; - a shared general understanding of the information structure among people and programs. An ontology carefully developed for one SA can then be used in other SAs. Moreover, several existent ontologies describing some subdomains of a large SA can be integrated when it is required to create a big ontology. Conclusion: Any SA can have countless ontologies, as each new ontology is just another way to structure concepts and their relationships. Modern doctors must be able to use medical information technologies in their everyday practices, which help them to not waste time on routine calculations and save time and energy for solving current problems. Keywords: electrocardiogram (ECG), telemedicine, ontology, SCP-ECG, OWL.
Relevance. Rapid development of telemedicine and e-health requires free, legitimate and secure health information exchange. Besides technical solutions an important role in providing health information exchange played by legal and organizational measures. Adoption of the new legislation on the application of information technologies in healthcare increases the relevance of legal issues in this sphere.
Objective. The article addresses the legal aspects of building health information systems, taking into account the rights and legitimate interests of all stakeholders (patients, physicians, healthcare providers, insurance companies, research organizations, etc.).
The main results. In the paper it is reasoned that the architecture of health information systems should be based on principles of centralized storage of data, integration of data from the wide range of sources, increasing usability of the systems, ensuring data dynamism and mobility as well as enhancing the role of patients in management of personal health records.
Also particular attention is paid to security issues of health information systems. The information security measures for such systems include reliable procedures for identification and authorization of subjects, differentiation of access rights to health records, encryption of health data and depersonalization of health data of individual patients. These and other measures will help to ensure the legitimacy of electronic document exchange, as well as to increase the level of patients trust to information technologies used in healthcare.
Applicability and scientific significance. The principles and ideas reflected in the article can be used in law-making process in the area of telemedicine and serve as a basis for the subsequent academic research on the electronic document exchange in the new technological conditions.
A model for organizing cargo transportation between two node stations connected by a railway line which contains a certain number of intermediate stations is considered. The movement of cargo is in one direction. Such a situation may occur, for example, if one of the node stations is located in a region which produce raw material for manufacturing industry located in another region, and there is another node station. The organization of freight traffic is performed by means of a number of technologies. These technologies determine the rules for taking on cargo at the initial node station, the rules of interaction between neighboring stations, as well as the rule of distribution of cargo to the final node stations. The process of cargo transportation is followed by the set rule of control. For such a model, one must determine possible modes of cargo transportation and describe their properties. This model is described by a finite-dimensional system of differential equations with nonlocal linear restrictions. The class of the solution satisfying nonlocal linear restrictions is extremely narrow. It results in the need for the “correct” extension of solutions of a system of differential equations to a class of quasi-solutions having the distinctive feature of gaps in a countable number of points. It was possible numerically using the Runge–Kutta method of the fourth order to build these quasi-solutions and determine their rate of growth. Let us note that in the technical plan the main complexity consisted in obtaining quasi-solutions satisfying the nonlocal linear restrictions. Furthermore, we investigated the dependence of quasi-solutions and, in particular, sizes of gaps (jumps) of solutions on a number of parameters of the model characterizing a rule of control, technologies for transportation of cargo and intensity of giving of cargo on a node station.
Event logs collected by modern information and technical systems usually contain enough data for automated process models discovery. A variety of algorithms was developed for process models discovery, conformance checking, log to model alignment, comparison of process models, etc., nevertheless a quick analysis of ad-hoc selected parts of a journal still have not get a full-fledged implementation. This paper describes an ROLAP-based method of multidimensional event logs storage for process mining. The result of the analysis of the journal is visualized as directed graph representing the union of all possible event sequences, ranked by their occurrence probability. Our implementation allows the analyst to discover process models for sublogs defined by ad-hoc selection of criteria and value of occurrence probability
Existing approaches suggest that IT strategy should be a reflection of business strategy. However, actually organisations do not often follow business strategy even if it is formally declared. In these conditions, IT strategy can be viewed not as a plan, but as an organisational shared view on the role of information systems. This approach generally reflects only a top-down perspective of IT strategy. So, it can be supplemented by a strategic behaviour pattern (i.e., more or less standard response to a changes that is formed as result of previous experience) to implement bottom-up approach. Two components that can help to establish effective reaction regarding new initiatives in IT are proposed here: model of IT-related decision making, and efficiency measurement metric to estimate maturity of business processes and appropriate IT. Usage of proposed tools is demonstrated in practical cases.