Ambient intelligence for remote patient monitoring of chronic diseases

"Personal health" is part of the Ambient Intelligence vision- people as autonomous citizen, proactive to their own health. At the same time, Personal Health Systems, as part of eHealth, are considered to be of prime interest for the European Union. They exemplify the change in the way care is delivered, the patient being in the centre, and a shift towards out-of-hospital care. They "assist in the provision of continuous, quality controlled, and personalised health services to empowered individuals regardless of location" . Especially patients with chronic diseases may profit from out-of-hospital care - 70% of today's costs in health care can be attributed to the treatment of patients with chronic diseases such as chronic heart failure, diabetes and pulmonary diseases (COPD). Chronic conditions and diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Europe. Moreover, chronic diseases impact on wages, workforce participation, labour productivity and hours worked. Managing chronic diseases has therefore become a health policy priority in many European countries. Remote monitoring in chronically ill presents both the clinical benefits and patient perspective, as well as cost efficiency. Whether these benefits will materialise is part of a variety of pilots, projects and programmes which are yet underway in the European member states. ISTAG AmI scenarios (Ducatel&all, 2001) show opportunities for much more effective personal service provision and health monitoring applications. These healthcare scenarios are driven by the trends like ageing, and changing disease patterns e.g. chronic diseases. The paper will outline the perspectives for the uses of Ambient Intelligence in the context of remote patient monitoring for chronic disease management (RPM) based on literature review. It also aims at analysing the problem and raising awareness of specific privacy threats and social implications. These issues can be positioned in a policy framework, addressing a number of policy issues.

PASCU Corina;  MAGHIROS Ioannis;  ABADIE Fabienne; 

2010-02-19

IFB Press

JRC56907

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC56907,