title: Telehomecare telecommunication framework - from remote patient monitoring to video visits and robot telepresence.
abstract: Over the last few years, the number of remote patient monitoring (RPM) products and of videoconferencing systems has exploded. There is also a significant number of research initiatives addressing the use of service robots for assistance in daily living activities. From a technological standpoint, providing telehomecare services is certainly feasible. However, one technological barrier is to have access to a telecommunication platform that can be adapted to address the broad range of specifications and requirements of clinical and telehealth applications. Handling the full spectrum of possibilities requires a telecommunication framework that can transmit vital sign data from patients to clinicians, bidirectional audio-video from a standard computing device, and also multiple video streams and bidirectional transmission of control data. This paper presents a framework that integrates such capabilities. It also illustrates the versatility of the framework by presenting custom-designed devices allowing integration of capabilities ranging from RPM to video visits and robot telepresence.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lepage
authors.forename: Dominic
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Letourneau
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamel
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Briere
authors.forename: Helene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Corriveau
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tousignant
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Michaud
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D019114:Remote Consultation; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D013685:Telecommunications; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D049269:Videoconferencing; D059015:Wireless Technology