AbstractsComputer Science

This dissertation focuses on the design of personalized and ubiquitous healthcare (PUH) services in the medical sector. It is proposed a new framework for structuring and deploying advanced PUH services in the right place, time and manner. According to this PUH framework, diverse types of entities (subjects and objects) are involved during the execution of each service. Each type of subject (e.g. patient, caregiver (doctor or nurse), volunteer, patient’s friend or relative, etc) or object (medical unit, medical files manager, etc) performs predefined actions according to the patient’s current health status and an agreed plan of actions. In the provision of PUH services, the permissible actions of each entity (or a group of entities) are determined by the “entity’s profile”, which is created in advance for this purpose. This work considers also the “group profile” that determines the behavior and the attributes of a specific group of entities. The PUH framework provides also mechanisms for the management of the patient’s context (environmental, living, etc) and the content of subject’s profile. Different profiling mechanisms are activated according to the subject’s type. Structurally, the proposed framework is an expansion of the framework that is utilized by the Next Generation Networks (NGN) (known as OSA/Parlay architecture) for the reliable provision of multipoint – multimedia communication services. The PUH framework distinguishes four classes of mechanisms: a) the conventional ETSI/Parlay mechanisms handling the communication among the entities that are involved during the execution of a PUH service, b) the mechanisms handling the acquisition of bio and contextual data by sensor networks deployed around the patient (e.g. Body Area Network), c) the mechanisms for the management of profiles data (e.g. availability, preferences, capabilities, care giving role, activities) and d) the security mechanisms. For the representation of these classes of mechanisms, an appropriate ontology has been created.Based on the above PUH framework, an entire profile management system is proposed. This system uses data from patient/caregivers profiles (or group profiles) in order to deploy a PUH service that will be able to support multi-party group-working schemes with well defined behaviors of all involved entities, devices and services. The technology of smart cards has selected as the appropriate technology for creating, accessing and enriching the subjects profiles.A prototype of the proposed profile management system is implemented using the cloud computing technology (Windows Azure platform). We have considered that parts of a profile are located in different service providers. The efficiency of the developed profile management system is evaluated in terms of time response in order to select the appropriate healthcare provider by simulating system's response to real world scenarios. Η παρούσα διατριβή εστιάζεται στο σχεδιασμό εξατομικευμένων (personalized) και διάχυτων / πανταχού παρουσών (ubiquitous) υπηρεσιών τηλεϊατρικής…