Cooperation framework for personal and home care monitoring systems

The scenarios of cooperation between personal healthcare systems are discussed in this paper. Current telemedical solutions for home care provide the patient with a seamless diagnosis based on selected vital parameters. The application of two or more specialized systems monitoring the same subject rises the question of possible interference and cooperation. The cooperation between home care and wearable systems is of particular interest, because of their complementary features. Considerations of various cooperation scenarios led to the specification of three cooperation levels with regard to the required software integration. The paper presents also the design of a cooperation protocol for two prototype surveillance systems, enabling the use of communication resources of the stationary system to carry the messages of the wearable system over the wired transmission channel.