Christoph Thuemmler

Enabling Real-Time Context-Aware Collaboration through 5G and Mobile Edge Computing

Creating context-aware ad hoc collaborative systems remains to be one of the primary hurdles hampering the ubiquitous deployment of IT and communication services. Especially under mission-critical scenarios, these services must often adhere to strict timing deadlines. We believe empowering such realtime collaboration systems requires context-aware application platforms working in conjunction with ultra-low latency data transmissions. In this paper, we make a strong case that this could be accomplished by combining the novel communication architectures being proposed for 5G with the principles of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). We show that combining 5G with MEC would enable inter- and intra-domain use cases that are otherwise not feasible.

An Integrated Cloud-based Healthcare Infrastructure

We present a cloud-based healthcare system that integrates a formal care system (DACAR) with an informal care system (Microsoft Health Vault). The system provides high levels of security and privacy within a cloud environment, enabling sharing of both health records and the access rights, along the patient pathway. We also define a case study that can help in evaluating and in demonstrating the usefulness of a cloud-based integrated health care system.

Setting safety standards by designing a low-budget and compatible patient identification system based on passive RFID technology.

This paper outlines a large-scale audit for the enhancement of quality of care and staff and patient safety using passive RFID (Radio Frequency ID) wrist bands, which link to a patients database, in order to reduce errors in patient care. It has been developed with a collaboration between the University Hospital, Birmingham, UK and Napier University, UK. The key feature of the work is the usage of passive RFID tags as an integral part of a low budget out-of-the box strategic patient information system which should be compatible with most hospital IT systems.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) in pervasive healthcare

Active and passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology are available and licensed for the use in hospitals, and can be used to establish highly reliable pervasive environments within healthcare facilities. They should not be understood as competing technologies and complement each other when intelligently integrated in compact frameworks. This paper describes the state-of-the-art of RFID technology and the current use in the healthcare industry, and points out recent developments and future options.

An architecture for designing Future Internet (FI) applications in sensitive domains: Expressing the software to data paradigm by utilizing hybrid cloud technology

The emergency of cloud computing and Generic Enablers (GEs) as the building blocks of Future Internet (FI) applications highlights new requirements in the area of cloud services. Though, due to the current restrictions of various certification standards related with privacy and safety of health related data, the utilization of cloud computing in such area has been in many instances unlawful. Here, we focus on demonstrating a “software to data” provisioning solution to propose a mapping of FI application use case requirements to software specifications (using GEs). The aim is to establish a provider to consumer cloud setting wherein no sensitive data will be exchanged but it will reside at the back-end site. We propose a prototype architecture that covers the cloud management layer and the operational features that manage data and Internet of Things devices. To show a real life scenario, we present the use case of the diabetes care and a FI application that includes various GEs.

Norms and standards in modular medical architectures

Recent Internet of Things (IoT) research has been aiming at interoperability of devices and the integration of sensor networks. The Future Internet - Private Public Partnership (FI-PPP) has created a whole array of different purpose-oriented modules with defined specifications, better known as Generic Enablers. This article gives an overview of legal, ethical and technical norms and standards to be considered when planning, developing and implementing modular medical architectures, integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) and Generic Enablers (GEs) in cutting edge, latest generation medical data networks.

Workshop videos for requirements communication

Shared understanding of requirements between stakeholders and the development team is a critical success factor for requirements engineering. Workshops are an effective means for achieving such shared understanding. Stakeholders and team representatives can meet and discuss what a planned software system should be and how it should support achieving stakeholder goals. However, some important intended recipients of the requirements are often not present in such workshops: the developers. Thus, they cannot benefit from the in-depth understanding of the requirements and of the rationales for these requirements that develops during the workshops. The simple handover of a requirements specification hardly compensates the rich requirements understanding that is needed for the development of an acceptable system. To compensate the lack of presence in a requirements workshop, we propose to record that requirements workshop on video. If workshop participants agree to be recorded, a video is relatively simple to create and can capture much more aspects about requirements and rationales than a specification document. This paper presents the workshop video technique and a phenomenological evaluation of its use for requirements communication from the perspective of software developers. The results show how the technique was appreciated by observers of the video, present positive and negative feedbacks from the observers, and lead to recommendations for implementing the technique in practice.

Interagency data exchange protocols as computational data protection law

The paper describes a collaborative project between computer scientists, lawyers, police officers, medical professionals and social workers to develop a communication infrastructure that allows information sharing while observing Data Protection law “by design”, through a formal representation of legal rules in a firewall type system.

Health 4.0: Application of Industry 4.0 Design Principles in Future Asthma Management

Industry 4.0 is a well-known industrial concept leveraging individualization and virtualization across different industrial domains. At its core Industry 4.0 empowers industries to evolve from manufacturers to service providers. Recently design principles for Industry 4.0 scenarios have been proposed. This chapter discusses the validity of the design principles for the health domain investigating its suitability for the diagnostics and therapy (theragnostics) of asthma. We come to the conclusion, that Industry 4.0 design principles work very well in the health domain especially with regards to Precision Medicine and the rapidly progressive evolution of smart pharmaceuticals in chronic, non-communicable diseases. The concept appears to be suitable for the health domain but its implementation and uptake will depend on future network specifications and features.

Surgery 4.0

In a highly competitive environment, surgery is forced to continuously improve the outcome and, simultaneously to reduce costs. These contradicting aims can only be reached by the combined use of cyber-physical systems . Digitalization of surgery may be denominated as “surgery 4.0 ”. This process will be primarily focussed on the surgical operation room which is the “profit centre” of any surgical unit. The aim is to transform it into a “collaborative environment”. Based upon a multitude of continuous real-time data, a support system should be capable to interpret the actual situation (context sensivity) and to predict the next steps required. In addition to the necessary medical and organizational structured knowledge which has to be provided before, the system should be able to learn from repeated procedures. Thus, it should offer active assistance to the surgical team to use the technical environment adequately, to smoothen the workflow, to avoid mistakes, and to improve the safety level. To reach this goal, some preconditions have still to be met: Comprehensive systems integration, the development of surgical and patient models, and a perfect communication not only between the devices and instruments but also with the human user. Making this vision mature for regular clinical care is challenging but first promising approaches have already been developed.