Mapaci: A Real Time e-Health Application to Assist Throat Complaint Patients

This paper describes the fundamentals of a complete e-Health Web cooperative information system combining the following features: a research and development platform for telemedicine and patient screening including new voice processing algorithms and a communications framework. The main goals and design decisions, related to architectural analysis of this information system oriented to voice pathology are pointed out. A methodology to handle patients´ voice samples, enabling real-time remote capture, transmission, storage and processing is documented. These features allow to define a complete information system including database recruiting as well as cooperative diagnose. Hints on the use of the Java Media Frameworkcopy (JMF) technology and the use of different protocols to implement synchronous services, including audioconferencing and videoconferencing are documented. The preliminary results show the feasibility of the design. Expected benefits are among others an improvement in the knowledge of voice pathology evolution, and the remote screening of large population sectors.