Smart and pervasive health systems—challenges, trends, and future directions

Abstract

Patients with chronic illnesses account for three-quarters of health care costs in the United States. For many patients, chronic conditions such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and neurological disorders significantly affect their health-related quality of life (HQoL). Recent advances in wearable and ambient sensors and mobile health (mHealth) technologies have enabled remote monitoring of patient health and their symptoms thereby enhancing effective self-management of chronic conditions and improvement in patient HQoL. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent trends and challenges in designing smart and pervasive health systems for monitoring patients with chronic illnesses. Recent work in developing wearable sensors and mHealth technologies for managing a variety of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, and Parkinson’s disease is described in detail. The article addresses various research gaps in security, energy optimization, scalability, and interoperability. The paper concludes with future research directions and recommendations in user centric design, closed loop systems, value based treatment, signal processing, and device level research for efficient design and adoption of smart and pervasive health systems.