Network solutions for home health care applications.

The growing number of the elderly in industrialised countries is increasing the pressure on respective health care systems. This is one reason for recent trends in the development and expansion of home health care organisations. With Internet access available to everyone and the advent of wireless technologies, advanced telehomecare is a possibility for a large proportion of the population. In the near future, one of the authors plans to implement a home health care infrastructure for patients with congestive heart failure and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The system is meant to support regular and ad-hoc measurements of medical parameters in patient homes and transmission of measurement data to the home health care provider. In this paper we look at network technologies that connect sensors and input devices in the patient home to a home health care provider. We consider wireless and Internet technologies from functional and security-related perspectives and arrive at a recommendation for our system. Security and usability aspects of the proposed network infrastructures are explored with special focus on their impact on the patient home.