OBJECTIVE: Under ubiquitous-healthcare circumstances, interest of one's health condition has been increased. People were required the measurement of biosignal by the wearable computing technology. The purpose of this paper is to measure the portable ECG (Electro- cardiogram) with the application of wearable computing technology. Therefore, the normal ECG measurement can be measured with a chest belt either in direct contract state or loose contact state. METHODS: The belt type circuit for measuring ECG was developed. In order to remove noises in loosely contact condition, a shield circuit was assembled with the measuring electrodes. Both of High performance differential amplifiers and notch filters were incorporated into the main amplifier circuits. The ECG data was converted from analog to digital form by MCU (Micro Control Unit). The main memory was composed of a memory controller and a memory card. RESULTS: The ECG measurement having bad electrode contact to body would be usually done in daily life, so we measured the biosignal by using the loose contact potable belt for accurate ECG data. The belt can be used to measure ECG by loose contact method. CONCLUSION: In this study, we could measure ECG without any spatial-temporal restriction due to the portable belt. This device is suitable for the ubiquitous-healthcare environment.
Contracts ; Electrocardiography ; Electrodes ; Memory ; Noise ; Thorax

OBJECTIVE: According to development of web service technology and mobile device supply, mobile web service becomes an essential element of ubiquitous healthcare. But there are many constraints for offering mobile web services on mobile devices. Hence, this paper propose optimal system supplying web services about medical information in wired /wireless network according to resources of device. METHODS: Proposed system consists of web server, database, desktop subscriber, mobile device and mobile context server. When a mobile device requires the web service, a mobile context server rewrites and offers the equivalent contents provided from web server to suit the requiring device's resource. Our proposed system services the same medical information after its recomposition as the network and devices of user. RESULTS: The medical staff may require patient information in wired/wireless environment, web server and mobile context server supports their correct judgment and expeditious response by servicing optimized data of the patient according to the requiring device. CONCLUSION: Proposed system designed the wired/wireless integrated medical information system using web service and mobile web service as the bases of ubiquitous healthcare system. Not only for web service in wired network, to provide the optimal web service in wireless network, we should know the limited resource of mobile devices and appropriately divide the web contents of wired network to fit the mobile device's screen. The future research needs dynamic division of screen according to extension of medical information data.
Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Information Management* ; Information Systems ; Judgment ; Medical Staff

OBJECTIVE: The progress in computer and communication technologies is making the Internet increasingly heterogeneous in terms of network, hardware and software capacities. Moreover, this has made it possible for emergency telemedicine services to provide high quality medical services. However, resource availability on the Internet varies unexpectedly. Thus, providing an efficient access to emergency telemedicine services requires that medical multimedia streams be adapted according to the environment constraints. One approach to this issue is based on the use of intermediate nodes within the network to perform such adaptations (media transformations and data transcoding). For this purpose, we have designed and implemented a proxy server for Quality of Service adaptations of medical multimedia streams. METHODS: We have organized a new emergency telemedicine system by designing a proxy server to execute transcoding. The proxy server is located between a patient system and a doctor system over heterogeneous networks. Before a patient system can deliver medical video streams to a doctor system, the proxy server measures uplink bandwidth which is one of the Quality of Service factors, from the proxy server to the doctor system. At this moment, frame rates are determined according to the measured bandwidth, and the proxy server transmits medical video streams modified for new frame rates to the doctor system. We describe the implementation of this proxy server on top of the Microsoft DirectShow(R) environment and report on a performance evaluation which demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach. RESULTS: The quality of requested medical video streams can be predicted when they are adapted to the receiver. With this prediction, adapted medical video streams which meet the frame rates constraints of the receiver can be delivered without additional measurements of bandwidth. CONCLUSION: This study represents a proxy server of a hybrid multimedia telemedicine system over heterogeneous networks. We expect that the designed proxy server can provide not only dynamic Quality of Service monitoring functions along bandwidth measurement, but also medical video adaptations to the receiver in heterogeneous network environments.
Emergencies ; Humans ; Internet ; Multimedia ; Proxy* ; Rivers* ; Telemedicine

OBJECTIVE: The advancement of computing capabilities and increase of available network bandwidths have resulted in an emergency telemedicine services which can provide high quality medical services. However, existing telemedicine systems mainly have offered a one to one communication configuration instead of a multi-connection configuration. Therefore, we suggested a hybrid multimedia telemedicine system to support the multi-patients services in wired and wireless (heterogeneous) network environments. METHODS: We designed the hybrid multimedia telemedicine system consisting of 4 sub-systems, a patient system, a doctor system, a emergency monitoring system, and a multi-control server system. The patient system could deliver multimedia data of a patient to the emergency monitoring system or to the doctor system according to link configuration. The link configuration was decided as 'Flowing', or 'By-passing' in accordance the connection type of patient systems or doctor systems. At this time, as the multi-control server system considers the hybrid network, it monitored the patient's multimedia data and the state of emergency telemedicine services. RESULTS: The hybrid multimedia telemedicine system including the multi-control server system performed the best communication configuration over heterogeneous networks. This system achieved high quality emergency telemedicine services through dynamic wired and wireless networks at real-time. CONCLUSION: This study represented a hybrid multimedia telemedicine system over heterogeneous networks in emergency cases. We expected that the designed system could provide not only the high quality services, tele-diagnosis and tele-consultation, but also the effective emergency telemedicine services to multi-patients in the heterogeneous network environments.
Emergencies ; Humans ; Multimedia* ; Telemedicine*

OBJECTIVES: Executive dysfunctions including working memory deficit have been suggested to be one of the major neuropsychological etiologies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the augmentative effects of working memory training on the behavioral problems, quality of life, and parental stress of medicated children with ADHD. METHODS: Twenty-five children with ADHD, aged 9 to 19 years, who were being treated with ADHD medication, were included. The participants were trained with a commercially available and computerized working memory program (Cogmed®) for 5 weeks without any alteration of their medication. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), KIDSCREEN-52 quality of life measure, and Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) were administered before training, and 4 weeks and 7 months after training, respectively. RESULTS: After completing the training, the anxiety/depression, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, aggressive behavior, and externalizing problems scores in the CBCL were significantly reduced. The score on the Parent-child dysfunctional interaction in the PSI-SF was also decreased. However, the scores related to the quality of life were not changed. These changes were still observed 7 months after the training. CONCLUSION: Cogmed working memory training can be a promising training option for the additional improvement of behavioral problems and parental stress in medicated children with ADHD.
Adolescent* ; Checklist ; Child Behavior ; Child* ; Humans ; Memory, Short-Term* ; Parenting ; Parents* ; Problem Behavior* ; Quality of Life ; Social Problems

OBJECTIVE: For the ubiquity of medical service, when user who has proper authority want to access medical data, user accessability should be assured. And the security of the disclosed medical data is important. This paper presents single user access interface on multiple patient reservoirs and elaborate access control using the Role-Based Access Control(RBAC) system. METHODS: Proposed system consists of 4-tier architecture that is client application, Access Control Central(ACC) agent, Local Access Control(LAC) agent and Hospital Information Systems(HIS). User requests medical data with client application. ACC notarizes user identity and controls access of user request and selectively encrypts medical data. LAC charges data conversion for communication between ACC and HIS. HIS has repositories of medical datum. System provides security service with digital certificate, X.509v3, of user. RESULTS: User requests medical data of several HIS approaching single ACC not by each HIS. Through conversion process of LAC, data that is described XML and is used for communication inter system enables information exchange with single common data format that is independent to several HIS. CONCLUSION: In the proposed system, user accesses medical datum of several HIS regardless of location and has consistent access interface. And using independent format against each HIS makes easy information exchange between several HIS. Transferred data maintains security about significant datum by selective encryption and increases encryption efficiency. Unified access control about multiple patient reservoirs that are scattered in other places provides unified and precise diagnosis of patient information. And it functions the portal of collaborate treatment in inter-HIS.
Computer Security ; Delivery of Health Care, Integrated ; Diagnosis ; Health Services Accessibility ; Hospital Information Systems ; Humans

OBJECTIVE: Development of telemedicine for an elder has been an important research area in an aging society, and effective Personal Emergency Response System(PERS) can provide exact medical decision and prompt treatment under emergency conditions. Previous studies have been focused on adapting troublesome sensors or passive calling system to monitor the old in their house. However, these previous systems might have limited applications due to its difficulties in usage and restraints in their daily activities, especially in the emergency. METHODS: In this study, the real time algorithms using surveillance camera was developed to monitor their pose change, such as emergency and falling motion. To estimate the motion of elder people, this research use a ratio of eigenvectors of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. RESULTS: In this system, no additional motion sensors or devices were applied to the object and it can be automatically controlled and monitor the old from a distance. It was found that this system can successfully monitor the old in living room regardless of surveillance camera angles and a silhouette size depending camera distance as using image processing and PCA. CONCLUSION: This algorithm was validated by experiments in a living room and this technique can be applicable to home monitoring and further applications.
Aging ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Passive Cutaneous Anaphylaxis ; Principal Component Analysis* ; Telemedicine

The remote surveillance system based on the wireless home sensor network, wireless internet connection, and the portable, hand-held device has been designed for the patron to get the emergency alarm for immediate care for the Dementia aged, when the patron is not at home. It consists of transmitting server and the receiving terminal. The transmitting server gathers the information through bluetooth connection regarding to environment threatening the safety of the Dementia aged from five sensors, including fire, gas, conductivity, photo, and motion sensors, and cameras up to the number of 16, fixated within home. It also determines the emergency situation automatically from sensors' environmental condition and the motion detected from the camera output targeted to the aged people, and sends the alarm message with the picture taken from home to the patrol for comprehending the emergency situation remotely. Either the PDA or the cellular phone is used as the receiving terminal device through wireless connectivity without the location limitation for the patrol. The functional evaluation via the implemented prototype system has been performed to initially demonstrate the efficacy, the usefulness, and ease to operate for later use for either solitarily living old people or nursery schools and infantile shelters.
Cellular Phone ; Dementia ; Emergencies ; Fires ; Internet ; Schools, Nursery

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to investigate the psychiatric manifestations in children with epilepsy and the associations with seizure-related variables. METHODS: The Korean version of the Child Behavior Checklist (K-CBCL) and the ADHD Rating Scale (K-ARS) were used to assess the psychopathology of 78 children with epilepsy (39 boys, mean age: 9.8+/-3.26 years-old) and 78 healthy comparisons matched for age and sex. RESULTS: Compared with healthy comparisons, children with epilepsy showed differences in the social, school, total competence scale, withdrawn, somatic complaints, social problems, thought, attention problems, aggressive behavior, internalizing and externalizing problem, and total behavior problem scores in the K-CBCL. Significant differences in the social, school, total competence scale, withdrawn, social problems, attention, and total behavior problem scales were found between groups in clinical spectrum and nonclinical spectrum. The inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, and total scores of the K-ARS between groups were significantly different. In addition, the total scores of the K-ARS between subjects in clinical spectrum and nonclinical spectrum were different. The more the number of antiepileptic drugs, the higher significance of the score for aggressive behavior, sex problem, somatic complaints in the K-CBCL, and the inattentive scales in the K-ARS. In addition, the withdrawn, anxious/depressed and somatic complaints in the K-CBCL were correlated with sex, onset age and seizure type, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Children with epilepsy may experience more various and serious psychiatric problems than healthy children. Responsiveness to antiepileptic drugs and seizure itself can be risk factors of psychiatric manifestations in epileptic children.
Age of Onset ; Anticonvulsants ; Checklist ; Child Behavior ; Child* ; Epilepsy* ; Humans ; Mental Competency ; Psychopathology ; Risk Factors* ; Seizures* ; Sexual Behavior ; Social Problems ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVES: Executive dysfunction including working memory deficit has been suggested to be one of the major neuropsychological etiologies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the augmentative effects of Cogmed working memory training on the symptoms and neurocognitive functions in medicated children and adolescents with ADHD. METHODS: Twenty-five children with ADHD, aged 7 to 19 years, taking ADHD medication participated in this study. The participants were trained for 5 weeks with a commercially available and computerized working memory program (Cogmed®) without any changes to their medication. The Korean version of the ADHD Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression Scale, and Comprehensive Attention Test were administered before training and 4 weeks and 7 months after training, respectively. RESULTS: After completing the training, the clinical symptoms and function, rated by the parents and clinician, were improved. In addition, the level of commission errors was significantly reduced in the selective attention (visual/auditory) task, sustained attention to response task, and flanker task. The untrained visuospatial short-term memory and working memory were also improved. These effects were still observed 7 months after the training. CONCLUSION: Cogmed working memory training can be a promising training option for the additional improvement of the symptoms and deficits in working memory and response inhibition in medicated children with ADHD.
Adolescent* ; Child* ; Humans ; Memory, Short-Term* ; Neuropsychology* ; Parents