Macroscopic sensor networks: Application issues in healthcare

Issue title: Selected papers from the International Conference on Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, e-Business, and Applications, 2004

Guest editors: Narayan C. Debnath

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Lawrence, Elaine^{; *} | Navarro, Karla Felix | Riudavets, Josep | Messina, Marco

Affiliations: Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Building 10, 235 Jones Street, Ultimo, 2007 NSW, Australia

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9514 1861; Fax: +61 2 9960 2985; E-mail: elaine@it.uts.edu.au.

Abstract: Motes (coin-sized sensors) have the potential to transform the way in which people live and work where computing occurs without human interaction so that data may be pre-processed and made available on demand. Motes may potentially transform the workplace into a Mobile Enterprise (m-Enterprise) especially in the healthcare sector. Motes are being trialed for emergency triaging, patient profiling and monitoring and education. Sensor networks could provide healthcare workers with a macroscopic view; they may be able to observe and interact with physical phenomena in real time with a high degree of fidelity. This paper examines the current health areas that are attempting to transform their operations using wireless sensor technology. The researchers report on issues that arose whilst working with Mica2 motes in a test bed environment during 2004, and their efforts to understand how these devices could usefully be adapted to the healthcare sector.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, motes, healthcare

DOI: 10.3233/JCM-2006-6S209

Journal: Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, vol. 6, no. s2, pp. S309-S319, 2006