title: Design and Implementation of a Set-Top Box-Based Homecare System Using Hybrid Cloud.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telemedicine has become a prevalent topic in recent years, and several telemedicine systems have been proposed; however, such systems are an unsuitable fit for the daily requirements of users.
  
  
  METHODS
  The system proposed in this study was developed as a set-top box integrated with the Android™ (Google, Mountain View, CA) operating system to provide a convenient and user-friendly interface. The proposed system can assist with family healthcare management, telemedicine service delivery, and information exchange among hospitals. To manage the system, a novel type of hybrid cloud architecture was also developed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Updated information is stored on a public cloud, enabling medical staff members to rapidly access information when diagnosing patients. In the long term, the stored data can be reduced to improve the efficiency of the database.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed design offers a robust architecture for storing data in a homecare system and can thus resolve network overload and congestion resulting from accumulating data, which are inherent problems in centralized architectures, thereby improving system efficiency.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taipei University , New Taipei City, Taiwan .
authors.forename: Bor-Shing
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi-Mei Medical Center , Tainan, Taiwan .
authors.forename: Pei-Chi
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Software Engineering, National Kaohsiung Normal University , Kaohsiung City, Taiwan .
authors.forename: Po-Hsun
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taipei University , New Taipei City, Taiwan .
authors.forename: I-Jung
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University , New Taipei City, Taiwan .
authors.forename: Gene Eu
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Jan
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001835:Body Weight; D000067917:Cloud Computing; D066275:Health Information Exchange; D063025:Health Information Management / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D057233:Radio Frequency Identification Device; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013690:Television; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D059015:Wireless Technology
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose
keywords: e-health; information management; medical records; telehealth; telemedicine