title: Design and implementation of a secure and user-friendly broker platform supporting the end-to-end provisioning of e-homecare services.
abstract: We designed a broker platform for e-homecare services using web service technology. The broker allows efficient data communication and guarantees quality requirements such as security, availability and cost-efficiency by dynamic selection of services, minimizing user interactions and simplifying authentication through a single user sign-on. A prototype was implemented, with several e-homecare services (alarm, telemonitoring, audio diary and video-chat). It was evaluated by patients with diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The patients found that the start-up time and overhead imposed by the platform was satisfactory. Having all e-homecare services integrated into a single application, which required only one login, resulted in a high quality of experience for the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University, Belgium. sofie.vanhoecke@intec.ugent.be
authors.forename: Sofie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Hoecke
authors.forename: Kristof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Steurbaut
authors.forename: Kristof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taveirne
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Turck
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dhoedt
mesh_terms: D016494:Computer Security / Q000295:instrumentation; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards*; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D018511:Systems Integration; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*; D014584:User-Computer Interface