WAP-based personalized healthcare systems

Abstract

In this paper a prototype system for personalized healthcare delivery is presented. The system involves monitoring and education services, designed specifically for people suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus. Adaptation to every patient’s special requirements was kept in mind, in order to achieve personalization of the service provided. The technological platform adopted for implementing the service is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP™), an emerging technology between the two most dynamically evolving communication mediums, the Internet and wireless communication networks. The fundamental idea behind this innovative system lies in the fact that by delivering customized to the special patients’ needs healthcare systems, a more flexible and efficient way of dealing with some kind of diseases may be provided. More precisely, adopting monitoring facilities by following a condition report process in a regular time base, healthcare delivery may become more prosperous. In the long term, clinical patterns useful for better diagnosis results may be extracted, by applying data-mining techniques on the data collected by the service. Thus, embodying such types of system in the demanding healthcare delivery domain can promise continuity of care, advanced quality of services, increased patient satisfaction and a more effective approach to disease management.