Type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide. When compared with other chronic diseases, deaths due directly to type 2 diabetes are less. The problem though, is the mortality rates caused by the consequences of type 2 diabetes; complications that represent a major health burden which may destabilise health economies. Recognised complications are: cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, renal failure, retinal eye disease, and neuropathy leading to high levels of morbidity and mortality from heart attack, foot ulceration and leg amputation, stroke, renal failure, and blindness. Better care of type 2 diabetes and early recognition and treatment of its complications reduce levels of morbidity and mortality. There is a need to support the diabetic patient in achieving effective glucose control and life-style changes leading to improved nutrition and healthy levels of physical activity, and to early recognize and treat complications. To make this possible and efficient, a patient portal has been developed, as part of the REACTION platform, which supports interactions between the diabetic patient and both their professional and non-professional carers. Introducing the patient portal and the REACTION platform to real-life healthcare systems will empower patients more by increasing their ability to self-manage, improve the quality of their life and the overall management of their diabetes, reduce the risk of developing complications and lessen their use of health services.

Wireless medical technologies (WMT) offer an enormous potential to improve healthcare, e.g. by a continuous monitoring of patients’ vital health parameters. As user acceptance is a key factor for WMT success, a model of acceptance for WMT-users and non-users was developed and empirically tested by applying structural equation modelling techniques (PLS). Based on a sample of N=305 participants the impact of different system architecture elements (device vs. wireless infrastructure) as well as user factors (knowledge, risk perception, and perceived control) on WMT acceptance was analysed. Perceived benefits and barriers as determining elements of WMT acceptance were quantified and guidelines for WMT system development, training and marketing were derived.

Smartphones are a promising channel for health promotion interventions. Mobile applications can track behaviour and provide real-time guidance and support. Research on mobile interventions has mainly focused on physical health and disease management, whereas promotion of mental well-being has received less attention. This paper presents results of a multidisciplinary expert review of twelve currently available mobile applications for mental well-being. The aim of the study was to identify what kinds of engaging and persuasive features are used in the applications and to assess how well the features were implemented. The expert reviews were carried out from user acceptance, mobile intervention design, and persuasive design points of view. Current applications were assessed moderately good from all three perspectives but improvement needs were identified in more versatile utilisation of mobile technology, leveraging social support, and providing a wider range of personalized intervention features.

Millions of people use mobile medical devices—more every day. But our understanding of device security and privacy for such devices is incomplete. Man-in-the-middle attacks can be performed on typical Bluetooth-enabled mobile medical devices, compromising the privacy and safety of patients. In response, we developed the , a portable device to improve security for mobile medical systems. This device requires no changes to either the medical device or its monitoring software, and offers protection for millions of existing devices. We evaluate our defense mechanism to show that it adds insignificant overhead and analyze its robustness against various attacks.

In this paper, we compare the performance of implantable antennas for integration into implantable medical devices and telemetry in the MICS (402.0–405.0 MHz) and ISM (433.1–434.8, 868.0–868.6 and 902.8–928.0 MHz) bands. A parametric model of a miniature (volume of 32.7 mm) patch antenna is proposed for skin–implantation, and further refined for each frequency set–up. Implantation inside canonical models of the human head, arm and trunk is considered, and the antenna resonance, radiation and safety performance is compared. Results indicate enhanced bandwidth and improved radiation and safety performance at higher frequencies because of the increased copper surface area. Implantation of a specific antenna inside different parts of the human body is shown to insignificantly affect its performance.