Design and Implementation of a Set-Top Box-Based Homecare System Using Hybrid Cloud

Telemed J E Health. 2015 Nov;21(11):916-22. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2014.0244. Epub 2015 Jun 15.

Abstract

Introduction: Telemedicine has become a prevalent topic in recent years, and several telemedicine systems have been proposed; however, such systems are an unsuitable fit for the daily requirements of users.

Materials and methods: The system proposed in this study was developed as a set-top box integrated with the Android™ (Google, Mountain View, CA) operating system to provide a convenient and user-friendly interface. The proposed system can assist with family healthcare management, telemedicine service delivery, and information exchange among hospitals. To manage the system, a novel type of hybrid cloud architecture was also developed.

Results: Updated information is stored on a public cloud, enabling medical staff members to rapidly access information when diagnosing patients. In the long term, the stored data can be reduced to improve the efficiency of the database.

Conclusions: The proposed design offers a robust architecture for storing data in a homecare system and can thus resolve network overload and congestion resulting from accumulating data, which are inherent problems in centralized architectures, thereby improving system efficiency.

Keywords: e-health; information management; medical records; telehealth; telemedicine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Blood Glucose
  • Blood Pressure
  • Body Weight
  • Cloud Computing*
  • Health Information Exchange
  • Health Information Management / instrumentation
  • Health Information Management / methods*
  • Home Care Services
  • Humans
  • Medical Records Systems, Computerized
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / instrumentation
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / methods
  • Radio Frequency Identification Device
  • Telemedicine / instrumentation
  • Telemedicine / methods*
  • Television
  • User-Computer Interface*
  • Wireless Technology

Substances

  • Blood Glucose