An Interactive Telecare System Enhanced with IoT Technology

Information technology and the proliferation of mobile devices provide an opportunity for patients to manage their own health conditions without the need for expensive medical treatments. Researchers from Tamkang University designed an interactive telecare system (ITCS) enhanced by Internet of Things (IoT) technology that enables direct communication between patients' medical devices and caregivers' smartphones to improve the quality of care for chronically ill patients. “Telecare lets mobile devices confirm patient safety through automatic and remote monitoring,” write Shih-Jung Wu and his colleagues in their article “An Interactive Telecare System Enhanced with IoT Technology” (login may be required for full text) published in the July—September 2017 issue of IEEE Pervasive Computing. Their system can remotely activate hardware components of medical devices in real time to access current information and smartphones via a telecare application. A case study was constructed with 2.5G blood glucose monitors (BGMs) integrated with a cloud platform and with Android and iOS telecare applications. Overseas medical institutions have confirmed and given feedback about the system's significant potential value in chronic-illness treatment regimens.

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About Lori Cameron Lori Cameron is a Senior Writer for the IEEE Computer Society and currently writes regular features for Computer magazine, Computing Edge, and the Computing Now and Magazine Roundup websites. Contact her at l.cameron@computer.org. Follow her on LinkedIn.