Portable devices, sensors and networks: wireless personalized eHealth services.

The 21st century healthcare systems aim at involving citizen and health professionals alike entitling especially the citizens to take over a higher level of responsibility for their own health status. Applied technologies like, e.g., Internet, notebooks, and mobile phones enable patients to actively participate in treatment and rehabilitation. It's not any longer just health cards; it's an ongoing standardized personalization of health services including application of portable devices, sensors and actuators stipulating the personalized health approach while offering chances for practicing high quality wireless personalized shared care. The path from cards to personalized and portable devices tackles aspects like health advisors, RFDI technology, the EHR, chips, and smart objects. It is important to identify criteria and factors determining the application of such personalized devices in a wirelessly operated healthcare and welfare, the paradigm change from cards to secure wireless devices to mobile sensors, and the citizen's acceptance of underlying technologies. The presentations of the workshop jointly organized by EFMI WG "Personal Portable Devices (PPD)" and ISO/IEC JTC 1 "Study Group on Sensor Networks (SGSN)" therefore aim at introducing technical approaches and standardization activities as well as emerging implementations in the addressed domain.

Identity-management factors in e-health and telemedicine applications.

Reliable identification is essential in e-health and telemedicine applications. This necessitates a secure and trustworthy method of communication and collaboration between parties, which depends on common acceptance. This in turn is related to privacy and ethical matters. Different technologies, including biometrics and RFID, allow high levels of security and safety in identifying both human beings and goods. However, the diffusion of standards relating to identity management in e-health is far from satisfactory. In order to support standardization in e-health, the European Commission funded the BioHealth project. This project has proved to be useful in promoting standards and creating awareness among the stakeholders.

Security, safety, and related technology - the triangle of eHealth service provision.

The developing of innovative solutions in the emerging eHealth market requires strong economic efforts which may be justified only in presence of particularly suitable boundary conditions. Among the factors retained of primary importance for the development of eHealth, a correct approach to id-management is unanimously considered fundamental. Three keywords in the id-management context appear particularly important: standardization, security and safety. Standardization may contribute to increase the size and duration of the eHealth market, while security and safety may encourage all the stakeholders to trust in a appropriate and safe management of all the very sensitive personal data involved in the eHealth applications. The aim of the present paper is analyzing some security and safety issues in eHealth from the particular prospective of the identity management and standardization. The paper highlights the mission of the EU funded "BioHealth" project whose mission is to increase the stakeholders' knowledge about existing and emerging standards in eHealth with particular reference to identity management.

BioHealth--the need for security and identity management standards in eHealth.

The experience gained in these last years and the several lesson learned have clearly shown that eHealth is more than just a simple change from paper records to electronic records. It necessitates a change of paradigms, on the one hand and the use of new technologies and introduction of new procedures on the other. Interoperability becomes a crucial issue. Security and confidentiality are vital for the acceptance of the new approaches and for the support of eHealth. Shared care and across-border interactions require a reliable and stable normative framework based on the application of standardized solutions, which are often not yet sufficiently known, diffused and implemented. Feeling this gap, a group of international experts in the medical area proposed to the EC the BioHealth project whose main aim is to create awareness about standardization in eHealth and to facilitate its practical implementation. The project will address all the stakeholders concerning their respective domain. It will evaluate the socio-economic and cultural aspects concerning eHealth with particular reference to the growing introduction of emerging technologies such as health cards, biometrics, RFID (radio-frequency identification) and NFC (Near field communication) tags. By providing information and expert advice on standardization and best practices it will raise the acceptance on standardization. Furthermore, the project will deeply approach the ethical and accessibility issues connected to identity management in eHealth, which -together with privacy- represent probably the most significant obstacles for the wide diffusion of eHealth procedures.