Analysis of Colombia's Telemedicine Development, the Postconflict Potential Opportunity.

Aims: The goal of this study was to evaluate the development of telemedicine in Colombia. Materials and Methods: Searched for laws in the Colombian legal system; the statistics of services and health operators was extracted from the unique system of habilitation; we looked for reports from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), the demographic statistics was obtained from the National Administrative Department of Statistics. Data analysis techniques were applied to identify possible relationships between them. Results: In Colombia, since the proclamation of the legality of telemedicine in 2007, there are five laws, five resolutions, and three government plans. A total of 3,245 services have been implemented in telemedicine, distributed throughout the territory by 51,490 operators, the ICT penetration rate is 21.17% by fixed internet and 39.3% by mobile internet; the Colombian population is 49,882,091 people, 25,228,444 women and 24,605,796 men, who are distributed 76.97% in the urban sector and 23.02% in the rural sector, and the coverage of health services is 94.8%. Conclusion: The development of health services in the telemedicine modality has been driven by Colombian regulations since 2007 and the plans for the growth of ICT infrastructure since 2009; however, these services have not yet reached 100% of the territory, especially areas with difficult access. The Colombian peace agreement creates the National Rural Health Plan (PNSR), which is presented as the obligation to carry out health coverage in all the territories, especially those in the rural areas, for the implementation of the strategy related to the implementation of services in telemedicine.

Internet of Things Applied in Healthcare Based on Open Hardware with Low-Energy Consumption.

OBJECTIVES: The Internet of Things (IoT) and its applications are growing simultaneously. These applications need new intelligent devices along heterogeneous networking. Which makes them costly to implement indeed. Platforms and open devices designed for open-source hardware are possible solutions. This research was conducted under an IoT design, implementation, and assessment model for the remote monitoring of pulse oximetry via oxygen partial saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) with low-energy consumption. METHODS: This study focused on the development of SpO2 and HR measurements that will allow the monitoring and estimation in real time of the user's state and health related to the established parameters. Measurements were acquired and recorded using a remote web server that recorded the acquired variables for further processing. The statistical analysis data allows comparison of the registered data measured with theoretical models. RESULTS: The IoT model was developed use Bluetooth low-energy devices, which comply with low-cost and open-hardware solutions operated via 'HTTP requests' for data transmission and reception from a cloud server to an edge device. Network performance assessment was conducted to guarantee the availability and integrity of the acquired values and signals. The system measured SpO2 and HR variables. The most significant result was to achieve energy consumption 20% lower than that of devices in the market. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the acquired data validation based on the IoT model had a transmission error of 0.001% which proves its applicability in healthcare.