An Interoperability Solution for Legacy Healthcare Devices

The exchange of vital sign data between legacy healthcare devices and application hosting devices requires interoperability and has become a critical issue for telecare monitoring systems. This study proposes an ISO/IEEE 11073 personal health device (x73-PHD) system that enables legacy healthcare devices to transmit vital sign data to an application-hosting device on a network. The proposed architecture is composed of the x73-PHD gateway, x73-PHD adapter, and legacy healthcare devices. Using a firmware upgrade mechanism provided by the system, the adapter connects legacy healthcare devices to transmit vital sign data to the application-hosting device, based on international x73-PHD standards and the interoperable platform. The proposed solution overcomes the problems of existing legacy healthcare device support and interoperability for personal healthcare systems. This system will enable legacy healthcare devices to link with a standard platform and supports telecare promotion.