MobiHealth – IST 2001-36006
INFORMATION SOCIETY TECHNOLOGIES
(IST)
PROGRAMME
Contract for:
Accompanying Measures – Take-Up actions
Annex 1 - “Description of Work”
Project acronym: MobiHealth
Project full title:Mobile Health Care
Proposal/Contract no.:IST-2001-36006
Related to other Contract no.: (to be completed by Commission)
Date of preparation of Annex 1: 21.02.2002
Operative commencement date of contract: (to be completed by Commission)
Contents
1Project Summary
1.1Project summary – Objectives
1.2Project Summary – Description of Work
1.3Project Summary – Milestones and expected results
2Project Objectives
2.1Description of the project Objectives
2.2Expected Results
2.3Functional description of the MobiHealth services
3List of Participants
4Contribution to programme/Key Action objectives
5Innovation
5.1Positioning of MobiHealth with regard to other European Projects
5.2Clustering
5.2.1Sub-cluster 2: Intelligent Systems for the Mobility of Health Professionals
5.2.2Sub-cluster 1: Minimally Invasive Diagnosis, Monitoring & Treatment
5.2.3Relation of MobiHealth with other 7Bis projects
5.3Innovative points of MobiHealth
5.4Risks
5.4.1Project related risks
5.4.2Technological and medical risks
5.4.3International 3G developments and terminals in the context of MobiHealth
5.5Legal Obligations
6Community added value and contribution to EC policies.
6.1Community added value and dimension
6.2EC policies
7Contribution to Community social objectives.
8Economic development and scientific and technological prospects
8.1Exploitation and dissemination
9Project Workplan:
9.1General Description
9.1.1WP 1 : Definition and specification of the MobiHealth trial applications
9.1.2WP 2 : BAN Integration
9.1.3WP 3: 2.5-3G communication Infrastructure
9.1.4WP 4 : MobiHealth Trials
9.1.5WP 5 : Assessment and Evaluation of the trials
9.1.6WP 6 : Dissemination of project results
9.1.7WP 7 : Project Management
9.2Workpackage List
9.3Workpackage Description
9.4Deliverables lists
9.4.1Deliverables list ordered by delivery date
9.4.2Deliverable list ordered by Deliverable code (WP)
9.4.3Content Description for the Technical Deliverables
9.5Project Planning and Time Table
9.6Graphical Presentation of project Workpackages
9.7Project Management
9.7.1Project Tools and Controls
9.7.2Management bodies
9.7.3Project Management Board (PMB)
9.7.4Project Technical Committee (PTC)
9.7.5Project Co-ordinator
9.7.6The Scientific Manager
9.7.7The Work Package Leaders
9.7.8Meetings
9.7.9Resolution of Disputes
9.7.10Problems and Contingency handling
9.7.11Quality of Work
Appendix A - Description of the consortium
Ericsson Consulting GmbH (DE) - ECD
GesundheitScout24 (DE) - GSCOUT
Telia Mobile AB (SE) - Telia
LTU - Luleå University of Technology (SE) - LTU
University of Twente - CTIT – APS (NL) - UT
Twente Medical Systems International (NL) - TMSI
YUCAT (NL)
Compaq Computer Corporation -,Wireless Services Network Solutions (NL) - Compaq
Medisch Spectrum Twente -Enschede (NL) - MST
Telefónica Móviles España (ES) - TME
Corporació Sanitaria Clinic (ES) – CSC
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES) - UPF
Philips Research Laboratories UK - (PRL)
CMG Wireless Data Solutions B.V. (NL) - CMG
Appendix B - Justification of project costs
Prototype integration
UMTS testbed
Dissemination
Travel Costs
1Project Summary
1.1Project summary – Objectives
The overall objective of the Mobile Health Care project is the development and trial of new services and applications in the area of mobile health, promoting the use and deployment of GPRS and UMTS mobile services and technologies. The target is to provide the means contributing to the reduction of costs in hospitals and health care, by allowing the patients to have complete and personalized monitoring of their health in-home, while pursuing a normal life (instead of being confined in hospital for long periods of monitoring). This will be achieved with the use of a customisable Body Area Network (BAN) integrating the required sensors and actuators, which will continuously monitor the vital signals of the “patient” and relay them to the health center. The complete system will be validated with a series of trials in different European test sites.
Specific objectives include :
- Specification and integration of the generic MobiHealth BAN and BAN OS
- Extension and adaptation of existing vital constant sensors and integration into the MobiHealth BAN
- Development of new value added services and applications, and usage scenarios to trial them
- Realization of a series of trials in real-life situations implementing the new MobiHealth services and applications
- Validation of the applicability and usability of GPRS and UMTS communication infrastructures for the MobiHealth applications and services
- Promotion of the new opportunities for business and services to private companies and the wider public.
1.2Project Summary – Description of Work
The technical objectives of the project are to first integrate the generic MobiHealth BAN for m-health services, by adapting and extending existing and forthcoming prototype technology with wireless communication capabilities over public and experimental 2.5 and 3G networks, and then to develop and trial new services and applications for mobile health, validating both the MobiHealth BAN and the capabilities of the 2.5-3G networks to support the new services and applications. The existing public GPRS and experimental UMTS infrastructures will be validated regarding their suitability and usability for new value added services. MobiHealth will validate the communication capabilities, test problems and issues in handovers and measure international interoperability capabilities at different levels. An important part of the development of the applications and services will be dedicated in the introduction of security mechanisms at both the communication and data handling levels. MobiHealth will also contribute to the standardization of the new value added services for mobile health applications, so that the prospects for new business can be improved.
Finally MobiHealth will collaborate with other projects in importing results and avoiding effort duplication, like is the case with billing and IP over GPRS and UMTS.
1.3Project Summary – Milestones and expected results
The project expected results include :
- The integration of a generic m-health BAN equipped with a basic set of sensors/actuators
- The development of new m-health services, scenarios and methodologies for their evaluation
- The validation of the suitability of GPRS and UMTS networks for m-health applications and services
- The completion of different trial scenarios validating the usefulness of the new applications and their economic and social advantages
- The awareness improvement of both large public and commercial companies of the new possibilities offered by UMTS and GPRS networks for health care applications
The Major Milestones include
M-1: Specification of new services with trial scenarios and evaluation methodology
M-2: Integration of the MobiHealth BAN
M-3: Successful completion of the trials and evaluation of the results
2Project Objectives
2.1Description of the project Objectives
The overall objective of the project is the introduction of new mobile health services based on the on-line continuous monitoring of vital signals, based on GPRS and UMTS technologies. The services will be supported by the MobiHealth Body Area Network (BAN), a wireless system that will be integrated within the project and which will allow the simple connection of different vital signal sensors. The BAN, the GPRS/UMTS communication infrastructures as well as the new services will be tested via a set of trials that will be conducted in different European countries.
The main thrust of the MobiHealth project is to conduct trials that introduce new services by providing continuous medical care (in-home and out of home) preferably based on wireless sensors and actuators (ranging from vital constants’ sensors to audio/video streams) integrated into Body Area Networks communicating with different health brokers via GPRS and UMTS connections. The MobiHealth BAN will be sufficiently generic to enable the seamless integration (wear and use) of different sensors and actuators. This way different kinds of services relating to continuous health monitoring can be introduced, including various forms of home care, physical status monitoring during sports applications, patient follow-up, medical testing etc.
The MobiHealth project will first concentrate on the integration from existing and experimental prototype hardware components the generic BAN platform. For this existing and experimental 2.5-3G capable hardware components and prototypes (such as the Compaq iPAQ, the, to be announced, fully programmable Ericsson telephones etc.) will be used, to which a specific set of commercially available sensors and actuators will be integrated by adapting and extending them with wireless connectivity. Next a series of test scenarios and evaluation methodologies will be developed, introducing the new mobile Health services. Finally the MobiHealth BAN equipped with 2.5-3G communication capabilities will be used in the framework of a series of trials; these trials will provide the context in which the business perspectives of the personalised mobile health services can be evaluated, along with the capabilities of the public GPRS and experimental UMTS to support this type of value added service.
The project targets the integration of the required infrastructure implementing the BAN, based on existing 2.5 and forthcoming– 3G networks. The result of the project will be a set of large scale trials demonstrating the feasibility of the application, its usefulness and testing the interoperability of the 2.5-3G network infrastructures in different countries. The aim is in the design of new value added services for the well being of the citizens and the creation of a standard that is acceptable by the major players.
2.2Expected Results
Upon completion of the project the following technological, economic and methodological results are expected:
- The integration of a generic m-health BAN equipped with a basic set of sensors/actuators.
A first version of a BAN will be implemented by integrating existing technologies. The BAN will have a central unit (MBU) that will serve as the communications gateway to the public GPRS and experimental UMTS networks and it will implement a part of the application functionalities. The generic BAN will allow the simple introduction of new sensors, allowing a high degree of personalization and customisation.
- The development of new m-health services, scenarios and methodologies for their evaluation.
New original services will be developed for mobile health along with trial scenarios and evaluation methodologies. The new services will allow patients to be continuously monitored by a remote health center. The project will develop scenarios for trailing the new services and methodologies for evaluating both their efficiency and their business potential.
The new services will be evaluated with a series of trials and their usefulness and economic and social advantages will validated.
- The validation of the suitability of GPRS and UMTS networks for m-health applications and services.
The project will test and validate the suitability of existing GPRS and forthcoming/experimental UMTS networks for the development of new mobile health applications. Different issues will be tested and validated, ranging from security aspects to ease of usage and to quality of service.
- The awareness improvement of both large public and commercial companies of the new possibilities offered by UMTS and GPRS networks for health care applications.
Of major importance to the project is the dissemination of the results to a large public. The project results will be presented in expositions, announced in the public media, and introduced to consortium customers. We expect that by the end of the project the new possibilities offered by MobiHealth technologies will be well understood and appreciated by both the public and commercial companies.
2.3Functional description of the MobiHealth services
The MobiHealth trials will implement simple but complete services that can be immediately deployed over the UMTS and GPRS networks. The MobiHealth patient/user will be equipped with different interoperating or independent vital constant sensors, ranging from blood pressure and pulse rate to blood glucose and cholesterol, to electrocardiograms and even brain activity sensors, and from different actuators, such as insulin or morphine pumps, pace maker controllers and even electrical muscle stimulation (Functional Electrical Stimulation or FES). Audio and video I/O devices may also be incorporated in the BAN depending on the needs of the application. The vital constant measurements are sent to a health broker (which may be a hospital or a medical call center) where specialists are able to observe the evolution of the patient and intervene when needed. The communication will be based on 2.5-3G wireless technologies so that the patient/user has complete freedom of movement and can pursue a normal life despite the need for continuous monitoring. Depending on the patient and the treatment, feedback might be sent to the sensors/actuators (for example instructions to increase the sampling frequency, insulin pump control, pace maker tuning etc) or directly to the patient in the form of audible or visual signals. The MobiHealth BAN will handle transmission details and problems such as network disconnection (eg. entering a tunnel) and quality of service adaptation due to hand-over situations.
The MobiHealth BAN can also be deployed at the scene of an accident or disaster. The paramedic BAN will be equipped with video and audio equipment, and be able to communicate with the casualty's BAN and thus transmit vital constants to the hospital along with visual and audio information. Thus the accident site is transformed into an emergency room where the (telepresent) specialists can intervene from the hospital. The BAN technology together with the 2.5-3G technology thus enables a (set of) virtual trauma team(s) to be rapidly assembled in response to an emergency situation.
The use of GPRS and UMTS as communication technology is essential due to the need to support a continuous connection to the health center, the high bandwidth required for the transmission of the data (which can easily reach the level of 100 kbps), the communication costs involved (in GPRS and UMTS the cost is calculate per Kb instead of per minute of connection), and the high quality of service required for all health related applications. These are requirements which cannot be met with current (GSM) technology.
3List of Participants
Parti. Role / Partic. No. / Participant Name / Participant short name / Country / Date Enter project / Date exit projectCO / 1 / Ericsson Consulting GmbH / ECD / Germany / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 2 / GesundheitScout24 GmbH / GSCOUT / Germany / Start of Project / End of Project
CR / 3 / Telia Mobile AB / Telia / Sweden / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 4 / Luleaa University of Technology / LTU / Sweden / Start of Project / End of Project
CR / 5 / University of Twente / UT / Netherlands / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 6 / Twente Medical Systems International B.V. / TMSI / Netherlands / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 7 / YUCAT B.V. / YUCAT / Netherlands / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 8 / Compaq Computer B.V. / Compaq / Netherlands / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 9 / Medisch Spectrum Twente / MST / Netherlands / Start of Project / End of Project
CR / 10 / TELEFÓNICA MÓVILES ESPAÑA S.A. / TME / Spain / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 11 / Corporacio Sanitaria Clinic / CSC / Spain / Start of Project / End of Project
MB / 12 / Universitat Pompeu Fabra / UPF / Spain / Start of Project / End of Project
CR / 13 / Philips Electronics UK Limited / PRL / United Kingdom / Start of Project / End of Project
CR / 14 / CMG Wireless Data Solutions (Netherlands) B.V. / CMG / Netherlands / Start of Project / End of Project
4Contribution to programme/Key Action objectives
The MobiHealth project addresses the problem of testing the 2.5 and 3G markets by developing and trialing new value added services and applications in the area of mobile health. On the one hand, 2.5 networks are today under-used due to the lack of innovative services. As a result the deployment of 3G technologies risks being delayed and the advances and momentum gained in Europe in mobile services during the last few years is in danger of being lost. On the other hand, the health sector faces serious (and increasing) problems in the management of resources for disease prevention, follow-up and remote assistance of patients. The cost of in-patient care is increasingly creating problems for both patients and social security organizations. In contrast the market for para-health services, and applications such as physical state monitoring during sports training and use of health call centers, is becoming increasingly common and available to every citizen. Finally citizen mobility at a pan-European level is increasing, with thousands of citizens crossing European country borders daily for purposes of entertainment, leisure, shopping and business. Thus the introduction of new pan-European mobile health and para-health personalised services based on 2.5–3G technologies will provide new markets and opportunities allowing both the citizens and the industry to profit.
MobiHealth is opening up new application areas for 2.5-3G communication technologies, providing the possibility for key actors (ranging from operators and SMEs to service providers and hospitals) to gain experience with new mobile value added services. MobiHealth aspires to create market demand for the new mobile health value added services and applications, thus boosting the development, deployment and use of 2.5 and 3G communications, in accordance with the targets set by the IST programmes.
The proposed work (trials) is considered within the 7BIS call and contributes to a number of Key Action Lines. Specifically, MobiHealth work will be carried out mainly in the context of V.1.6 CPA6 : New generation networks and V.1.12 CPA12 Application services provision in conjunction with I.1.3 Best practice and trials in e-health.
InV.1.6 MobiHealth contributes by validating the applicability and usability of the existing GPRS and forthcoming UMTS infrastructures, demonstrating full service and application capabilities in the area of mobile health services. Furthermore new business models for m-health services will be tested.
In V.1.12 MobiHealth contributes with the development and validation of the MobiHealth BAN, as a tool for the provision of a variety of applications in the area of health and para-health over publicly available GPRS and UMTS network infrastructures.
In I.1.3 MobiHealth contributes with the development and trial of new health telematics applications for mobile on-line prevention and consultation, on an international European level.
MobiHealth also contributes to KAL II.1.5 High Impact Take-up, dissemination and training, by promoting the broad adoption of novel solutions for m-health services based on the MobiHealth BAN by SMEs and by validating new technologies in realistic operational contexts. Finally MobiHealth contributes in IV.3.2 Functionality models and building blocks for end-user services by testing software for m-health services on mobile devices, specifically next generation fully programmable telephones and mobile devices (eg. PDAs, pocket PCs).