Development of real-time bio-signal waveform transport device based on MFER standard for U-healthcare systems

Abstract

U-healthcare is maintaining of users’ health without limitations of where and when they are. Therefore, it is important to share information between heterogeneous systems in U-healthcare, so medical information standard is compulsory. There are many kinds of medical standards. Among them, MFER (Medical waveform Format Encoding Rules) is an adequate standard especially for encoding of waveform signals. MFER has many advantages for representation of medical waveform, but it is not the best for real-time applications. Needs for real-time applications of medical information in U-healthcare systems are significant, but MFER cannot support them due to the internal structure of MFER. Therefore, in this article, the new concept (TS-MFER, modified version of MFER) is developed for real-time applications of medical information. A real-time bio-signal waveform transport protocol was developed based on MFER standard and was demonstrated on a USB device. Through this study, it can be concluded that the TS-MFER frame could be a promising standardised building block for real-time bio-signal waveform transport in U-healthcare systems.