People will be surrounded by a digital bubble; Devices worn in or on the person or in clothing or accessories will be able to communicate freely in this bubble; data from medical devices around the body can be collated and sent to clinics in real time. People’s bubbles will also interact with those of other people and with the digital environment; Many devices will be worn in or on the skin, and others as part of clothing or jewellery; some of these devices will have a medical purpose . Active skin will enable a wide range of medical monitoring and control advances as well as enhancing personal appearance. Remote supervision and remote control of drug delivery, via smart membranes. Body adornment will make use of new technology such as digital tattoos, video display fabrics, smart accessories etc; People will have multiple appearances, depending on who is looking at them. These will be tailored using technologies such as digital mirrors. This will enhance the wellbeing of people whose appearance is a problem, reducing prejudice in electronically mediated communication. Electronics and haptic materials will enable sensory enhancement and translation

Embedded Decision Making in eCardiology. Lessons Learned From the EPI-MEDICS Project. Paul Rubel

There is an increasing demand for personalized and non-hospital based care and for smart, highly intelligent, wearable devices such as the PEM (Portable ECG Monitor) designed by the EPI-MEDICS project to record, interpret, transmit and/or access information anywhere, anytime, and above all, to let the patients and the citizens act as health consumers controlling their own health. This requires to embed in the wearable devices advanced signal processing and decision making techniques such as artificial neural networks committees, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, …, and to take into account the risk factors and the specificities of the patient. EPI-MEDICS has advanced one step further, towards embedded selfimproving decision systems, by providing means facilitating the adjustment of the embedded decision making criteria in function of false or missed alarms and by embedding intelligent mobile agents to control the flow of the alarm messages generated by the devices. The solution includes a kind of “decision-making software factory” that provides means to add and/or delete signal processing and decision making steps, facilitate the design and production of advanced embedded software components, connect to application servers to update criteria, check the decision-making system consistency. The first evaluation results of 70 PEM prototypes on over 200 patients and citizens demonstrate that, thanks to the embedded intelligence, they will be able to perform relevant tests at the early stage of the onset of the symptoms without involving skilled personnel, and c all for assistance only when needed.

Micro and Nano Technology Enabling. Ambient Intelligence for P-Health
Cian Ó Mathúna

This presentation will discuss the ongoing development and integration of micro and nanotechnologies within NMRC that will enable the future vision of ambient intelligence with specific application to the area of personalised health (PHealth).  3-dimensional and planar microsensor modules are described that will form the basis of future wireless sensor networks in monitoring systems for sustainable environmental development and  diagnostic and therapeutic systems for Ehealth, both of which will significantly impact the health of every citizen. Functional elements incorporated in these microsensor modules include sensors, data acquisition and processing, communications and power. Details will be presented of the development of 25mm cubed module that are designed to offer a modular, flexible and scaleable platform for the development of ambient applications. Deployment scenarios currently being investigated include human-computer interfacing for the blind and e-beds for hospitals as well as health-related services such as water quality monitoring and personal security. Projects investigating in-vivo diagnostics and therapeutics are discussed which include catheter radiation monitoring, electrochemotherapy and retinal implants. Research electric underfloor heating programmes into the key issue of power delivery for wearable and in-vivo microsensor modules include inductive power, energy harvesting from flexible solar cells, piezoelectric shoe insoles and body motion. The emerging concept of point-of-care DNA analysis systems is introduced with particular emphasis on the silicon sensors under development. A novel concept of using the liquid-liquid interface as a future in-vivo sensor system is also introduced. The European Network Nano2Life is introduced as an effective collaborative cluster to enable developments in this area. Finally, a technology roadmap is presented for the miniaturisation of the 25mm modules to 10mm and 5mm cubed and the potential for the development of the ultimate intelligent-seed (I-seed) of 1mm cube is also discussed

ICT & Ophthalmology. Johnny Moore

This presentation describes a software process development, designed to improve the totality of care involved in ensuring optimized outcomes for patients with visual disability secondary to cataracts. The task is to consider an individual with specific visual needs and to design a surgical process which will consider the  aspheric axially asymmetric biological system (the eye), carryout various measurements including assessment of optical and anatomical factors to direct specific surgical intervention to produce an optimized (customized) visual outcome. The surgical care process involves various individuals each performing lone worker technical tasks which have potential sources of error. Computerized decision support systems integrated within the care pathway linked to visual assessment systems and prompted by specific patient information and visual requirements will help direct surgical care to ensure improved quality in surgical outcomes.

Some associated links

Workshop on Intelligent Biomedical Clothing

EC-IST Programme-eHealth

In addition, the workshop will:
·         Report and promote progress in research in smart wearable and implantable systems,
·         Disseminate current information on existing EU funded projects,
·         Provide awareness to users, decision makers, health providers and other stakeholders,
·         Provide an opportunity for new collaborative networks in eHealth

Venue – The International Workshop on Personalised Health will take place at W5 in the centre of Belfast on Monday 13th December and Tuesday 14th  December and will continue on Wednesday 15th December at The University of  Ulster at Jordanstown, 8 miles from Belfast on the edge of Belfast Lough.

By Air – Belfast International Airport is approx 18 miles from Belfast City centre and 17 miles away from the campus of Jordanstown by bus/car/taxi. There is a connecting bus service and taxi services available from the airport. Belfast City Airport is approx 8 miles from Jordanstown and 2 miles from Belfast City Centre.

By Ferry – The Seacat sails directly to Belfast from Troon, P&O also sails directly from Fleetwood, Cairnryan and Troon to Larne (approx 20 min from Jordanstown or 23 mile from Belfast City Centre) many times daily. Norse  Merchant Ferries also sails directly to Belfast from Birkenhead.

By Rail – There is a regular rail service between Belfast City Centre and Jordanstown, Timetables, ticket prices and all other information regarding rail travel in Belfast can be found on the Translink Website.