Hussam Al-Hamadi

Reliability analysis of healthcare information systems: State of the art and future directions

Testing and verification of healthcare information systems is a challenging and important issue since faults in these critical systems may lead to loss of lives, and in the best cases, loss of money and reputations. However, due to the complexity of these systems, and the increasing demand for new products and new technologies in this domain, there are several methods and technologies being used for testing these systems. In this paper, we review the state of the art on testing and verification of healthcare information systems, and then we identify several open issues and challenges in the area. We divide the exiting methods into three categories: simulation based methods, formal methods, and other techniques such as semi-formal methods. Then, we discuss challenging and open issues in the domain.

Formalizing electrocardiogram (ECG) signal behavior in event-B

Recording the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time as detected using electrical sensors is referred to as Electrocardiography (ECG). ECG is recorded as a collection of signal waves that has repetitive patterns. These patterns are usually used in the complex diagnosis process through which ECG may indicate certain problems related to the heart or other parts of the body. Despite the extensive studies conducted on the analysis of ECG signals and their thorough analysis, there is a lack of a formal model that validate their specifications, which results in several inconsistencies and problems in their interpretations and usage. This, on the other hand, may lead to ambiguities and incompleteness in the methods that are developed utilizing ECG specifications and their features. Therefore, in this paper we propose a method to formalize and validate the specifications of ECG signals in Event-B. We formally define the waves of ECG and their relation, and then formalize and validate several properties about their behavior.

Formal validation of QRS wave within ECG

Electrical sensors are used to detect and record the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time, this operation is referred to as Electrocardiography (ECG) in medical science. Hence ECG is composed of a set of signal waves that repeats themselves and are usually useful in medical diagnosis, where certain ECG patterns and the occupancy of specific waves, such as the QRS wave, may indicate certain heart problems. In this paper, we extend our previous results where we provided a high level model for ECG wave, with a more concrete model for QRS waves at several levels of abstraction in order to validate the specification of the QRS waves and several properties related to its behavior. We use formal method since medical applications still suffer from design and understanding problems when implemented in ICT context despite the use of thorough test through simulation techniques which may lead to ambiguities and incompleteness in the developed methods for using ECG specifications in medical diagnosis. We used the Event-B formal method to successfully formalize the QRS wave in the ECG of the heart system at several levels of abstraction, and then defined and validated several properties that are related to its wavelet shape and behavior.

An automatic ECG generator for testing and evaluating ECG sensor algorithms

The use of biomedical sensors, be it attached or embedded inside a human body, to monitor various physiological parameters is increasing at a significant rate due to continued advances in miniaturizations and materials. Testing and verification of the algorithms used in processing the physiological parameters of concern is essential, given the sensitivity of their usage. Simulation is a technique that is widely used to achieve this. However, proper test cases are required in order to carry out the simulation process. ElectroCardioGram (ECG) is one of the most commonly used and studied physiological signal, yet, algorithms that handle ECG recorded data are not being tested and verified thoroughly due to the lack of proper test cases. This paper presents an automatic test case generation algorithm that can be used to provide ECG records for testing purposes. The algorithm is based on a range of the parameters related ECG components such as amplitude, duration, slope, and physical characteristics. Hence, the required shape of the ECG can be controlled in order to be able to cover a wide range of scenarios during testing. We provide an implementation of the algorithm and illustrate it on two different ECG sensor algorithms.

Efficient low cost supervisory system for Internet of Things enabled smart home

Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot and debated subject in current digitalized era. IoT enables internet connectivity for all kinds of devices and physical objects. The current world is approaching towards virtualization of different types of systems that enables performing activities without direct physical interaction. The combination of high-speed internet and intelligent devices makes it easier to manage multiple jobs smoothly without the limitation of distances. The outstanding advantages of these promising technologies require the deployment and utilization of proper methods to handle the difficulties arise with these new applications. in the real world. This paper propose an efficient low cost supervisory system for smart home automation that can be managed using IoT. The proposed system is based on Apriori algorithm and will help to monitor and control all the home appliances and electronic devices through a supervisory system in a most efficient and reliable manner. Both the consumers and the suppliers will get the opportunity to manage the power distribution by monitoring the electricity consumption.

Lightweight Security Protocol for ECG Bio-Sensors

Securing biomedical information is a critical issue in wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs). However, since sensors used in a WBSN tend to have limited processing capabilities and energy sources, minimizing the overhead imposed by security protocol is a challenging problem. This paper proposes a scheme that uses the electrocardiogram (ECG) features to provide a lightweight protocol that can be used to provide several security properties for biomedical sensors, in particular, those that have the ability to capture ECG waveforms. The security of the proposed scheme relies on the operation of the Pan Tompkins algorithm where certain information is extracted from ECG that cannot be reversed back. The implementation is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which specifies the physical layer for low-rate wireless personal area network. As a result, the proposed security protocol utilizes the effectiveness of several security techniques, such as nonce and hash at the biosensor side by relying on the characteristics of ECG. This reduces the overhead caused by providing security layer to the operation of the sensor. Formal analysis methods were used to demonstrate the suitability of the proposed protocol for WBSNs and prove its security.

Simulation Framework for a Security Protocol for Wireless Body Sensor Networks

The implementation of security protocols within Wireless Body Sensor Network (WBSN) creates chances for more observations in the sake of performance evaluation. The robustness of such protocols can be verified by formalizing its components using different techniques. In addition, simulating the security protocol can provide an insight into several design parameters, such as response to inputs, and help adjusting these design parameters. In this paper, we provide a framework for simulating security protocols within WBSN in order to validate that such protocol meets essential security requirements. Afterwards, we apply it on a security protocol that relies on ElectroCardioGram signal. During the work on this paper, it has been proven that the simulation framework provides the user with the potential to analyze the security aspects of Wireless Body Sensor network applications, such as ElectroCardioGram bio-sensor.

Lightweight security protocol for health monitoring in Ambient Assisted Living environment

Security is one of the major challenges that affect the deployment of the biosensors that form Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs). However, the implementation of any security protocol will result in the introduction of additional functional blocks to the device, which invariably lead to an increase in power consumption and processing delay. Both aspects are of critical importance to biosensor nodes in WBSNs as they tend to have limited power and need to have real-time processing capabilities. In this paper, a lightweight security protocol is presented to secure the medical information transmitted from the biosensor to the gateway. The proposed security protocol relies on a counter method at the biosensor side, which implements several security techniques at the biosensor side such as the nonce, hash, and public key encryption in order to minimize the consumption of biosensors power needed for security operations. The security protocol comes with acceptable low computation overhead and hence results in minimal processing delay. Therefore, the proposed protocol, as compared with that of other existing ones, can be used for real time sensing and transmission of medical data.

Assertion-based verification technique for ECG bio-sensor algorithms

This paper proposes a verification approach for testing the functionality of the algorithms in ECG bio-sensor. Algorithms functionality is achieved once the medical target of the algorithm is achieved correctly within an acceptable processing time. The Pan Tompkins algorithm is one of the well-known methods, which is used to detect the QRS wave in ECG signal. The QRS detection and other design goals can be traced through the assertion technique. The proposed approach is based on inserting assertions within the model of ECG bio-sensor design. In addition, this approach depends on pre-defined generated ECG records to assist the assertions on evaluate the Pan Tompkins functionality and analysis stage of the ECG bio-sensor.