Distributed e-Health system with Smart Self-care Units

In order to assure remote monitoring of patients with chronic diseases and also to improve the responsiveness and quality of medical services a distributed e-health system was designed. A key element of this system is the smart self-care unit (SSCU) that allows remote acquisition of medical data from patients treated or monitored at home. This unit is composed of a set of smart medical sensors and devices connected through a wireless network. The system assures mobility for the patients under observation and seamless transfer of medical data to the healthcare centers (hospitals, clinics, general practitioners, etc). The patients can interact remotely with medical personnel and may have access to medical services through a distributed, multiserver-based application. A number of autonomous medical applications (servers) deployed in every medical center cooperate in order to offer an integrated healthcare system. Medical information concerning patients enrolled in this system is exchanged between medical entities and self-care units. As part of this system a portal application offers a set of useful medical services such as: information about doctors, medical units and their services, secure storage of personal medical records, discussion forum for patients and doctors or statistical processing of recorded medical data.