2008
Sachpazidis, Ilias
Image and Medical Data Communication Protocols for Telemedicine and Teleradiology PhD Thesis
2008.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eHealth, Medical protocols, Medication adherence, Telemedicine
@phdthesis{12,
title = {Image and Medical Data Communication Protocols for Telemedicine and Teleradiology},
author = {Sachpazidis, Ilias},
editor = {Encarnaccao, Jos'e L. and Sakas, Georgios},
url = {https://ini.igd.fraunhofer.de/bibcd/INI_Science/dissertations/diss_sachpazidis.pdf},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
abstract = {Telemedicine is currently being used to bridge the physical distance between patients in remote areas and medical specialists around the world. Distributed client-server applications have become very popular with the explosive growth of the Internet. These distributed applications provide an inexpensive and fast way to access medical information and also provide good accessibility and availability of medical service. Telemedicine applications are a client/server applications where medical and patient information is stored in a server and the information is made accessible to doctors and medical personnel at a distant site. In addition, depending on the type and the needs of the medical application different type of communication protocols and medical devices are utilized making interoperability and communication over different communication channels quite difficult. In my dissertation I analyzed first a range of telemedicine systems already used and I concluded that telemedicine systems can be categorized according to on three different features (layers): - Transportation protocol layer - Medical devices layer - Application layer The outcome of the analysis was that on the application layer, there exists a wide variety of different telemedical applications, each one supporting a special and focused medical application case. Thus, on the application layer a heterogeneous environment of medical use cases exists and it not possible to homogenize due to the particularities of each medical situation. Regarding the device layer, a plurality of different medical devices is used for each medical application supporting different functionality. As an example, one uses ECG devices for monitoring heard activity, blood pressure devices to measure the diastolic and systolic arterial pressure, ultrasound, CT, MRI devices for medical imaging analyzing physiological structures and so on. Nevertheless, although the individual devices will have to remain separate, I propose here an interfacing scheme enabling connection of the various devices to a unique data interface, enabling their individual data to be transferred and handled in a unique, transparent way. By this I integrated a wide variety of medical devices offering flexible solutions covering large number of home care, emergency and radiology applications. On the transportation layer I concluded that a number of various telecommunication protocols are utilized and miscellaneous types of data types and data sizes are to be exchanged, depending on their application. In addition, I concluded that all the communication protocols applied today show common problems emerging from firewalls and network address translation servers. I also concluded that the applied communication protocols do not support presence awareness of the users. Based on the aforementioned observations, I propose an instant messaging protocol able to homogenize the communication and transportation layer and support any data type and any data size while solving all of the existing problems at once. In this way I unified the various protocols, replacing them by only one, at the same time overcoming common problems arising from firewalls, NATs and mobility of the users. Traumastation shows exemplarily the correctness of my approach and demonstrates how several different medical devices can be integrated on one single case and support a wide variety of applications utilising thereby one single data transportation protocol. Die gegenw"artige Telemedizin dient der "Uberbr"uckung der physischen Distanz zwischen Patienten in abgelegenen Gebieten und medizinischen Spezialisten rund um die Welt. Verteilte Client-Server Anwendungen wurden mit dem explosiven Wachstum des Internets sehr popul"ar. Diese verteilten Anwendungen sorgen f"ur einen preiswerten und schnellen Zugang zu medizinischen Informationen und liefern ebenso einen einfachen Zugang und gute Verf"ugbarkeit der medizinischen Dienste. Telemedizinische Anwendungen sind Client/Server Anwendungen, wo medizinische und Patienten-Informationen auf einem Server gespeichert werden. Diese Informationen werden "Arzten und medizinischem Personal an einem entfernten Ort zug"anglich gemacht. Zus"atzlich, abh"angig von Typ und Anforderungen der medizinischen Anwendung, werden verschiedene Typen von Kommunikationsprotokollen und medizinischen Ger"aten eingesetzt, die die Kompatibilit"at und Kommunikation "uber verschiedene Kommunikationskan"ale sehr schwierig macht. In meiner Dissertation analysierte ich zuerst bereits angewandte telemedizinische Systeme und kam zu dem Schluss, dass telemedizinische Systeme nach drei verschiedenen Ebenen (Schichten) kategorisiert werden k"onnen: - Transport-Protokoll-Ebene - Medizinische Ger"ate-Ebene - Anwendungsebene Das Ergebnis der Analyse war, dass auf der Anwendungsebene eine große Vielfalt von verschiedenen telemedizinischen Anwendungen existiert, jede Einzelne unterst"utzt einen speziellen und fokussierten medizinischen Anwendungsfall. Auf diese Weise entsteht eine heterogene Umgebung von medizinischen Anwendungsf"allen auf der Anwendungsebene, und es ist aufgrund der Besonderheiten jedes medizinischen Anwendungsfalls nicht m"oglich, diese zu homogenisieren. Auf der Ger"ateebene wird eine Vielzahl von verschiedenen medizinischen Ger"aten pro medizinischer Anwendung verwendet. Zum Beispiel benutzt man EKG-Ger"ate zur "Uberwachung der Herzaktivit"at, Blutdruckger"ate zum Messen des diastolischen und systolischen arteriellen Druckes, Ultraschall-, CT- und MRT-Ger"ate zur medizinischen Bildverarbeitung, die physiologische Strukturen analysiert etc. Nichtsdestotrotz, obwohl die einzelnen Ger"ate separat bleiben m"ussen, schlage ich hier ein Kopplungsschema vor, das die verschiedenen Ger"ate zu einem einzigen Dateninterface verbindet und es erm"oglicht, ihre individuellen Daten auf einzigartige, transparente Weise zu "ubertragen und zu handhaben. Dadurch integrierte ich eine große Vielzahl an medizinischen Ger"aten, die flexibel einsetzbar sind und eine große Anzahl von Anwendungen , wie Heimpflege, Notfall und Radiologie, abdecken. Auf der Transportsebene kam ich zu dem Schluss, dass viele verschiedenere Telekommunikationsprotokolle benutzt werden und unterschiedliche Datentypen und Datengr"oßen abh"angig von ihrer Anwendung ausgetauscht werden m"ussen. Zus"atzlich stellte ich fest, dass alle heutzutage angewandten Kommunikationsprotokolle gemeinsame Probleme haben, die durch Firewalls und Netzwerk-Adressumwandlungsservern entstehen. Ich kam ebenso zu dem Schluss, dass die angewandten Kommunikationsprotokolle das ,presence-status" der Benutzer nicht unterst"utzen. Basierend auf den genannten Beobachtungen schlage ich ein Datentransfer-Protokoll vor, das in der Lage ist, die Kommunikations- und Transportfunktion zu homogenisieren und jeglichen Datentyp und jegliche Datengr"oße zu unterst"utzen und somit alle bestehenden Probleme auf einmal zu l"osen. Auf diese Weise vereinheitlichte ich die verschiedenen Protokolle und ersetzte sie durch eines. Gleichzeitig "uberwand ich Probleme, die aus Firewalls/NATs und der Mobilit"at der Benutzer entstehen. Die Traumastation zeigt exemplarisch die Richtigkeit meines Ansatzes und demonstriert, wie einzelne verschiedene medizinische Ger"ate zu einem einzigen Koffer/Einheit integriert werden k"onnen und unterst"utzt eine große Vielfalt von Anwendungen, die dazu ein einziges Datentransportprotokoll benutzt.},
keywords = {eHealth, Medical protocols, Medication adherence, Telemedicine},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Sachpazidis, Ilias; Sakas, Georgios
Medication Intake Assessment Conference
Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, 2008.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eHealth, Medication adherence
@conference{14,
title = {Medication Intake Assessment},
author = {Sachpazidis, Ilias and Sakas, Georgios},
url = {https://ini.igd.fraunhofer.de/bibcd/INI_Science/papers/2008/08p081.pdf},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments},
abstract = {Today, more than 430 million people worldwide are estimated to be suffering at any given time from mental disorders. Surprisingly, there is limited awareness that mental disorders are a major cause of lost healthy years of life. According to the World Health Organisation, Affective Disorders (depression and manicdepression or bipolar disorder), Schizophrenia and related conditions are among the top ten leading causes of disability worldwide. This evidence shows how important it is to respond to the growing global burden of mental illness. Europe is taking a leading role in this field with a number of initiatives aiming to improve the mental well-being and reduce the level of social exclusion and disability amongst the mentally ill. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in our understanding of the biological, psychological and social determinants of mental illness and this has led to the development of many effective medicines. However, we also know that the quality of treatment delivery is of paramount importance. Prescribed medication becomes a truly effective intervention if it is coupled with efficient service delivery. In such circumstances patients have the opportunity to realize their potential and to become functioning and productive members of their communities. Key components of efficient service delivery are timely detection of non-adherence to medication and rapid response by mental health professionals to any signs of impeding relapse. In this paper, we are going to describe a home care application for medication adherence monitoring and assessment.},
keywords = {eHealth, Medication adherence},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}
2006
Sachpazidis, Ilias; Majadas, Maria
A Medication Adherence Monitoring System Based on HL7 Messages Journal Article
In: The Journal on Information Technology in Healthcare, 4 (1), pp. 49-58, 2006.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eHealth, HL7, Medication adherence
@article{C34-P-16921,
title = {A Medication Adherence Monitoring System Based on HL7 Messages},
author = {Sachpazidis, Ilias and Majadas, Maria},
url = {https://ini.igd.fraunhofer.de/bibcd/INI_Science/papers/2006/06p014.pdf},
year = {2006},
date = {2006-01-01},
journal = {The Journal on Information Technology in Healthcare},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {49-58},
abstract = {A Medication Adherence Monitoring System (MAMS) system has been designed based on Health Level 7 (HL7) messages. MAMS is a practical and patient-friendly solution that has the potential to both improve medication adherence and monitoring adherence in any group of patients. The proposed system can be easily integrated into any hospital administration system by providing an HL7 interface for seamless integration.},
keywords = {eHealth, HL7, Medication adherence},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2005
Sachpazidis, Ilias; Majadas, Maria
Medication Adherence Monitoring System Elaborating HL7 Messages Conference
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Health, 2005.
Links | BibTeX | Tags: eHealth, HL7, Medication adherence, Telemedicine
@conference{C34-P-16441,
title = {Medication Adherence Monitoring System Elaborating HL7 Messages},
author = {Sachpazidis, Ilias and Majadas, Maria},
url = {https://ini.igd.fraunhofer.de/bibcd/INI_Science/papers/2005/05p132.pdf},
year = {2005},
date = {2005-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Health},
pages = {216-225},
keywords = {eHealth, HL7, Medication adherence, Telemedicine},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}