A telemedicine system for remote health and activity monitoring for the elderly

The aging population is placing increasing pressure on healthcare services around the world. Telemedicine, which provides medical information or healthcare services at a distance using telecommunication technologies, is of growing interest to governments and healthcare providers. Existing telemedicine systems are primarily for medical information sharing and consultation with no teleoperation capabilities for activity monitoring. Moreover, the equipment of most systems available to support older patients to stay in their living environment must be tied to a fixed location, which severely limits their feasibility and applicability. In this paper, a new telemedicine structure is introduced for regular and ad hoc health monitoring services. In particular, it aims at scenarios where frequent interactive contacts between patients and professionals are required. This system incorporates several different networking technologies that work harmoniously to facilitate data communication, which potentially have a profound impact on the method of delivering medical service remotely. Another unique characteristic of the developed system is its capabilities of adaptation to network conditions, such as network congestion and availability of bandwidth. The concept of the proposed structure is validated using a laboratory-based test platform with some pilot experiments. Preliminary results demonstrate its feasibility for remote health monitoring services of the elderly. The potential benefits of the system are also presented.