Health information systems for home telehealth services – a nomenclature for sensor-enhanced transinstitutional information system architectures

Abstract

Home telehealth services for elderly people promise to contribute to a more efficient health care in the future. Though isolated services at a patient's home might make sense for some applications, the full potential of home telehealth only arises through its integration into existing health information systems (HIS) and care processes. We know about traditional HIS architectures. However, so far no models exist, helping us to understand and describe the upcoming sensor-enhanced transinstitutional information system architectures for home telehealth services. To develop a nomenclature for sensor-enhanced transinstitutional health information system architectures. We conducted two systematic literature reviews, assessing typical services and users of home telehealth and key characteristics of transinstitutional health information system architectures. The information retrieved from both reviews was integrated to build the nomenclature sought after. We present a nomenclature of information and communication technology (ICT) architectures for home telehealth services. The developed dimensions provide an overview on typical users, services, operating organisations, information flow, geographical reach and architectural paradigms of sensor-enhanced transinstitutional health information systems. The developed nomenclature helps us to better understand the upcoming ICT architectures. However, we are still in need of further experiences with their application.

Keywords:

• Information system
• architecture
• telehealth
• ambient-assisted living
• health enabling technologies

Acknowledgments

This work has been done in the Lower Saxony Research Network ‘Design of Environments for Ageing’ ( www.altersgerechte-lebenswelten.de) and in the research project PAGE ( www.page-projekt.de ). It has been partially funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture through the ‘Niedersächsiches Vorab’ grant program and by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of the paper.