Wearable Sensors in Healthcare and Sensor-Enhanced Health Information Systems: All Our Tomorrows?

• DOI: 10.4258/hir.2012.18.2.97
• Publication Date: 2012-07-13T15:43:10Z
• Authors: Michael Marschollek; Matthias Gietzelt; Mareike Schulze; Martin Kohlmann; Bianying Song; Klaus-Hendrik Wolf
• Keywords: 360; ddc:610; Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics; R858-859.7; 610; Review Article; 02 engineering and technology; health information technology; 3. Good health; ambulatory monitoring; 610 Medizin, Gesundheit; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; ddc:610; decision support systems

Wearable sensor systems which allow for remote or self-monitoring of health-related parameters are regarded as one means to alleviate the consequences of demographic change. This paper aims to summarize current research in wearable sensors as well as in sensor-enhanced health information systems. Wearable sensor technologies are already advanced in terms of their technical capabilities and are frequently used for cardio-vascular monitoring. Epidemiologic predictions suggest that neuro-psychiatric diseases will have a growing impact on our health systems and thus should be addressed more intensively. Two current project examples demonstrate the benefit of wearable sensor technologies: long-term, objective measurement under daily-life, unsupervised conditions. Finally, up-to-date approaches for the implementation of sensor-enhanced health information systems are outlined. Wearable sensors are an integral part of future pervasive, ubiquitous and person-centered health care delivery. Future challenges include their integration into sensor-enhanced health information systems and sound evaluation studies involving measures of workload reduction and costs.