Worldwide Network-Centric Healthcare Operations and the Associated Telecommunications Infrastructure

The development of new services is among the most challenging technological issues currently faced by telecommunication companies (Telcos) whose networks need a drastic reorganization in order to support new offerings. Telcos are turning to standard-based platforms allowing quick deployment of new services that leverage development expertise from a wide range of suppliers. Next generation networks (NGNs) handling voice, data and video communications offer a unique opportunity for the creation of new forms of healthcare access, delivery, and administration in a new, global network-centric system consisting of fully interoperable, collaborative of multi-domain elements necessary for the efficient conduct of worldwide healthcare operations. The present paper expands previous studies and research and provides full definition of the worldwide healthcare information grid (WHIG) architecture that we propose to realize through the functionalities offered by the currently deployed next generation networks.