In this study, we combined Hospital Information System (HIS) and the basis of mobile communication, established a telemedicine homecare management system in long-term and sustainable health monitoring through the transmission of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Based on the RS-232C standard, we connected Short Message Service (SMS) with sphygmomanometer and glucose meter for sending real-time physiological responses to telemedicine homecare information management system through GSM900/1800 2G mobile phone in Taiwan. There are 300 participants and 4736 records of blood pressure and sugar measurement data in the system, which also connected with several hospitals’ HIS. Physicians may link to the system through the health record page in HIS for patients’ physiological responses and records. If there are any abnormal data, physicians and medical staff can inform and arrange patients back to the clinic for further treatment or observation.

1. Wei-Tse Tang, Chiu-Ming Hu, and Chien-Yeh Hsu
Graduate Institute of Medical Informatics
Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
International Conference on Bioinformatics and
Computational Biology
July 15, 2009
A Mobile Phone Based Homecare Data
Transmission and Management System

2. • Introduction
• Solution
• Vital Signs Healthcare Information System
• Results
• Conclusions
Outline
2

3. • Population ageing issue in Taiwan
– Ageing rate is more than two times of Europe and US
– Elderly population will reach 14% in 2020[1]
Introduction
3[1] H. C. Chiu, "Organization and delivery of long-term care in Taiwan," J Aging Soc Policy, vol. 13, pp. 217-32, 2001.“The Ageing of the World’s Population”, Programme on Ageing, United Nations, http://www.un.org/ageing/popageing.html

4. Causes?
Ageing
Population
Chronic
Disease
Introduction
4

5. • Mostly used for
consultations between
telemedicine centers in
hospitals and clinics
• Using videoconferencing to
replace in-person visits[1]
• High cost and complexity
equipments
Traditional Telemedicine
5[1] C. Lau, J. E. Cabral, Jr., D. R. Haynor, and Y. Kim, “Telemedicine, Handbook of Medical Imaging”. SPIE Press,
Bellingham, Washington, 2000.

6. • Senior Ubiquitous-Care Flagship Plan[1]
• More telemedicine contacts experiments[2]
– Web-based system access to patient data via internet
Solution
6
[1] Coordinate ExecutiveYuan and Department of Industrial Technology with “The Flagship Program of Scientific and Technological
Services”and the first stage of three-year boost plan (2007-2009) in “2015 Vision of Economic Development”, 2006.
[2] C. Lau, R. S. Churchill, J. Kim, I. Frederick A. Matsen and Y. Kim. “Asynchronous Web-Based Patient-CenteredHome Telemedicine
System”, TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING(IEEE), Vol. 49., Issue 12., 1452-1462, Dec 2002.

7. • Developed with
– PHP
– Microsoft ISS server
– MySQL database
• Provides
– Telemedicine care management operations
– Mobile healthcare services
– Personal service webpage of each healthcare institutions
– Vital signs healthcare information management
Vital Signs Healthcare Information System
7

8. Vital Signs HIS Framework
8

9. Two-Way Vital Signs SMS Operation
9

10. Vital Signs HIS Interface
10

11. Vital Signs HIS Interface
11

12. Vital Signs HIS Interface
12

13. • Vital signs information display
– Systolic pressure
– Diastolic pressure
– Sphygmus
– Blood sugar
• Additional features
– Personal Data
– Abnormal vital signs information
– Vital signs information histories
Results
13

14. • Members participated in four hospitals
Results (cont.)
14
Institution Members
Wan Fang Hospital 95
Tri-Service General Hospital 70
Taichung Veterans General Hospital 70
Taipei Medical University Hospital 70
Total 305

15. • What to improve?
– Further integrate prevention health services
– Provide internet browsing or download the service
– Offering health education or weight control information
for chronic patients
• To provide a reusable structure for similar studies in
the future
Conclusions
15

16. • Build a real-time image processing system
• Follow the standard of electronic health records
• Medical image data could be transmited
• VoIP provide consultations and disscusions
• Patient bedside videos and multimedia medical for
patient educations
In the Future
16

17. Wei-Tse Tang
Taipei Medical University
clementtang.tang@gmail.com
Q&A
17