1st International ICST Workshop on Location Based Services for Health Care

Research Article

Sensor Aggregation and Integration in Healthcare Location Based Services

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361698,
        author={Lorcan Coyle and Steve  Neely and Paddy  Nixon and Aaron  Quigley},
        title={Sensor Aggregation and Integration in Healthcare Location Based Services},
        proceedings={1st International ICST Workshop on Location Based Services for Health Care},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={LOCARE},
        year={2007},
        month={5},
        keywords={Aerodynamics  Biomedical informatics  Computer science  Delay  Hospitals  Medical services  Medical treatment  Sensor systems  Space technology  User centered design},
        doi={10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361698}
    }
    
  • Lorcan Coyle
    Steve Neely
    Paddy Nixon
    Aaron Quigley
    Year: 2007
    Sensor Aggregation and Integration in Healthcare Location Based Services
    LOCARE
    ICST
    DOI: 10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361698
Lorcan Coyle1,*, Steve Neely1,*, Paddy Nixon1,*, Aaron Quigley1,*
  • 1: Systems Research Group, School of Computer Science & Informatics, UCD Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
*Contact email: lorcan.coyle@ucd.ie, steve.neely@ucd.ie, paddy.nixon@ucd.ie, aaron.quigley@ucd.ie

Abstract

Complex and dynamic working environments such as health care facilities consist of staff, patients and equipment constantly moving in response to changing medical requirements. Knowing the current location of people and equipment is essential for the smooth running of a facility, yet creating a global view through tracking is a challenging task. It is clear that many common hospital situations can be improved with real-time access to the various actors' location information. One of the main problems with implementing such services is that current location based applications tend to be proprietary and the data generated closed. The realisation of ubiquitous location based services demands the exploration of hybrid models and methods that can utilise existing and subsequent infrastructures in novel and complimentary ways. We describe a number of hospital scenarios that use location-based services and make available all the location data gathered. We propose that by aggregating location data by a range of acquisition methods it is possible to improve the performance of location applications and readily adapt to the introduction of new location detection technologies