Keynote 2

Summary form only given. U-health, the short form of "ubiquitous health," refers to a health care system making use of ICT to provide preventive care, consultation, treatment, and follow-up care to patients from anywhere and at any time. U-health is a derivative of e-Health, offering a health care service model that is more consumer-oriented. While e-Health is an electronic information sharing system between patients, the general public, health care institutions and solution providers, u-Health goes one step further to integrate the physical spaces of health care users and providers with electronic spaces, operating cutting-edge medical technologies. The advent of ubiquitous networking promises to bring about dramatic changes at all levels of our life. This term, derived from the Latin word "ubiquitous" being everywhere at once refers to the new technological paradigm whereby all parts of a society are interconnected through information networks, propelling progress at a social, cultural as well as economic level. Ubiquitous networking, by interlinking computers, consumer electronics, automobiles, home appliances, medical equipment, transportation systems, animals and plants through an overlapping of electronic spaces and physical spaces, is expected to provide an environment that enhances our lives through improved convenience, efficiency and safety in all areas. u-Health, the most exciting of ubiquitous networking applications, has attributed a strong potential to meaningfully contribute to the improvement of the quality of our lives. In Korea and elsewhere in the world, active efforts are underway to develop software solutions and equipment enabling integration of IT with health care technologies.