Μελέτη, σχεδίαση και ανάπτυξη πιλοτικού συστήματος απομακρυσμένης παρακολούθησης ασθενών με συγκεκριμένη χρόνια πάθηση

Καλυβιώτης, Παναγιώτης Γ.

Master Thesis

Author

Καλυβιώτης, Παναγιώτης Γ.

Date

2014-05-29

Abstract

The goal of this MSc thesis is to design and develop a pilot system for remote monitoring of patients suffering from chronic diabetes. Health care has become a sine-qua-non necessity in our daily life and will continue to remain in high demand in the years ahead because, simply put, each and every one of us today fully grasps the fundamental importance of our physical and mental well-being. With that in mind, here we examine how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) apply to tele-monitoring patients. The particular area of Medicine that offers such services is called Telemedicine. We also evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of Telemedicine as well as the various ways, in which this kind of health care has by now become both easily accessible and decidedly effective. It is worth noting the tangible assistance that Telemedicine offers to such vulnerable groups as the elderly and the chronic-illness sufferers. As the aging of the population becomes ever more evident in many countries throughout the world (Japan is a notable example), there is greater interest in the optimal allocation of the additional resources dedicated exclusively to the health care and monitoring of the aging. On another front, in our own West nowadays the combination of a sedentary lifestyle and casual dietary habits have increased the frequency of chronic illnesses such as diabetes. Among the many conveniences availed by Telemedicine is the reduced need for patient visits to clinics and hospitals, with rather noticeable savings in strained financial and human resources. By applying ICT, a patient could literally relax at home while at the same time enjoying adequate health protection. Over the last three decades, ICT has made strides toward high-quality health services, resulting in substantial benefits to public finance and the society at large. Here, all the steps in the planning, designing and development of applications used in remote monitoring as well as the relevant communication and network technologies utilized in Telemedicine are analyzed. The most frequent chronic illnesses are reviewed with special focus, of course, on our central concern: diabetes. The thorny issue of balanced information protection and individual privacy is also weighed because Telemedicine, by its very nature, requires the highest safeguard standards in terms of accuracy and use of personal data. Finally, a 3-Tier system of tele-monitoring diabetics is designed and developed by employing open-source technologies with the clear objective of cost-benefit enhancements. We use the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 7.2.1as well as the XAMPP Environment 1.8.1, while the programming language PHP 5.4.0, the javascript framework Ext JS 4.1.0, the application server Apache 2.4.2, and the relational database management system MySQL 5.5.25a are chosen for the application development.