Mobile and multi-stream tele-consultation system for homecare assistance

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Telehealth is defined as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to extend health care service delivery across distance. Home telehealth uses ICT to provide health care services into a patient's home. Remote vital signs monitoring is a common example and one promising market, but lacks the richness, comforting and subtleties of face-to-face assessments usually done by having either the patient go to the clinic or the clinician going to see the patient at home. To conduct more lively and interactive consultations, virtual visits involve the use of video and audio for live and remote consultations between clinicians and patients. These consultations are done through fixed workstations or mobile devices using web videoconferencing systems not adapted to the practice of clincians. To provide mobility to the interactions that would normally take place in face-to-face consultations, this project aims at adding a mobile and wireless pan-tilt-zoom camera and a wireless communication badge to a multi-streams video/audio/data telecommunication platform developed by Vigilent Telesystems inc. The system will be able to provide multiple viewpoints and audio input sources (fixed and/or mobile) and vital signs (oximeter, glucometer). The video-centric user interface will automate some of the pan-tilt-zoom functions (such as people tracking and re positioning) of the mobile camera to allow the remote clinician to concentrate on the scene rather than on controlling the camera. Simple voice commands will be recognizable through the communication badge, allowing the hands of the patient to remain free. A cloud server will be implemented for data sharing and storing (including a small-scale health record). The project funds 2 Master's students, 1 coop trainee, 2 research professionals and 1 technician. The design of the system will be made in accordance with the specific needs and clinical practices, based on the experience acquired by the Telerehabilitation Research Chair at the Research Center for Aging Institute of the Université de Sherbrooke, validated with 5 patients and the Clinique de physiothérapie Physio Altas of Sherbrooke.