Addressing the confidentiality and integrity of assistive care loop framework using wireless sensor networks
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki , Hoang, Doan , Zia, Tanveer
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 21st International Conference on Systems Engineering, ICSEng 2011; Las Vegas, NV; United States; 16th-18th Aug, published in Proceedings - ICSEng 2011: International Conference on Systems Engineering; p. 416-421
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: In-house healthcare monitoring applications are continuous time-critical applications often built upon Body Area Wireless Sensor Networks (BAWSNs). Our Assistive Care Loop Framework (ACLF) is an in-house healthcare application capable of monitoring the health conditions of aged/patients over a dedicated period of time by deploying the BAWSN as the monitoring component. However, the wireless medium used in the BAWSN for communications is prone to vulnerabilities that could open a door to attackers tampering with or compromising the user's data privacy. Hence, it is imperative to maintain the privacy and integrity of the data to gain the confidence and hence, the acceptance of the users of the healthcare applications. Furthermore, in time-critical applications, the vital health conditions must be monitored at regular intervals within their specified critical time. Therefore, the security model proposed for the BAWSN must not incur undue overheads when meeting the critical time requirements of the application. In this paper, we propose and implement a secure adaptive triple-key scheme (aTKS) for the BAWSN to achieve the privacy and integrity of the monitored data with minimal overheads. We then present the performance results of our scheme for the BAWSN, using real-time test-bed implementations and simulations. © 2011 IEEE.
- Description: Proceedings - ICSEng 2011: International Conference on Systems Engineering
A biometric based authentication and encryption Framework for Sensor Health Data in Cloud
- Authors: Sharma, Surender , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text:
- Description: Use of remote healthcare monitoring application (HMA) can not only enable healthcare seeker to live a normal life while receiving treatment but also prevent critical healthcare situation through early intervention. For this to happen, the HMA have to provide continuous monitoring through sensors attached to the patient's body or in close proximity to the patient. Owing to elasticity nature of the cloud, recently, the implementation of HMA in cloud is of intense research. Although, cloud-based implementation provides scalability for implementation, the health data of patient is super-sensitive and requires high level of privacy and security for cloud-based shared storage. In addition, protection of real-time arrival of large volume of sensor data from continuous monitoring of patient poses bigger challenge. In this work, we propose a self-protective security framework for our cloud-based HMA. Our framework enable the sensor data in the cloud from (1) unauthorized access and (2) self-protect the data in case of breached access using biometrics. The framework is detailed in the paper using mathematical formulation and algorithms. © 2014 IEEE.
Critical time parameters for evaluation of body area wireless sensor networks in a healthcare monitoring application
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text: false
- Description: In recent years, the drive for the Healthcare Monitoring Application (HMA) aims to provide continuous remote monitoring of a patient's health. For this to happen, the sensors in the monitoring component of the Body Area Wireless Sensor Networks (BAWSN) need to continuously send data to a Healthcare Application. We show that to provide continuous health data, the BAWSN depends on the collective data delivered by all the sensor nodes and not on a single sensor because medical diagnosis is rarely performed from a single data point. In addition, the arrival time of data should occur within the expected time to be indicative of the actual health of the patient. In this paper, we characterize the HMA as a time-critical application because the BAWSN has stringent timing requirements concerning the arrival of data from the sensor nodes within the defined critical time. Thereby, we formulate the critical time parameters to evaluate the BAWSN operations.
A genetic algorithm-neural network wrapper approach for bundle branch block detection
- Authors: Allami, Ragheed , Stranieri, Andrew , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Computing in Cardiology Conference (CinC), 2016; Vancouver, BC ;11-14 Sept. 2016, published in Computing in Cardiology p. 461-464
- Full Text: false
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- Description: An Electrocardiogram (ECG) records the electrical impulses of the heart and indicates rhythm anomalies for diagnostic purposes [1], [2]. A typical ECG tracing of the cardiac cycle consists of a P wave, QRS complex, and T wave [3]. Good performance of an ECG analyzing system depends heavily upon the accurate and reliable detection of the QRS complex, as well as the T and P waves [4]. A Bundle Branch Block (BBB) is a delay or obstruction along electrical impulse pathways of the heart manifesting in a prolonged QRS interval usually greater than 120ms. The automated detection and classification of a BBB is important for prompt, accurate diagnosis and treatment to reduce morbidity and mortality.
A scalable cloud Platform for Active healthcare monitoring applications
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki , Stranieri, Andrew
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2014 IEEE Conference on e-Learning, e-Management and e-Services, IC3e 2014; Melbourne, Australia; 10th-12th December 2014 p. 93-98
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- Description: Continuous, remote monitoring of patients using wearable sensors can facilitate early detection of many conditions and can help to manage the growing healthcare crisis worldwide. A remote patient monitoring application consists of many emerging services such as wireless wearable sensor configuration, patient registration and authentication, collaborative consultation of doctors, storage and maintenance of electronic health record. The provision of these services requires the development and maintenance of a remote healthcare monitoring application (HMA) that includes a body area wireless sensor network (BASWN) and Health Applications (HA) to detect specific health issues. In addition, the deployment of HMAs for different hospitals is not easily scalable owing to the heterogeneous nature of hardware and software involved. Cloud computing overcomes this aspect by allowing simple and easy maintenance of ICT infrastructure. In this work, we report a real-time-like cloud based architecture known as Assistive Patient monitoring cloud Platform for Active healthcare applications (AppA) using a delegate pattern. The built AppA is highly scalable and capable of spawning new instances based on monitoring requirements from the health care providers, and are aligned with scalable economic models. © 2014 IEEE.
Performance evaluation of the dependable properties of a body area wireless sensor network
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki , Stranieri, Andrew
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2014 International Conference on Reliabilty, Optimization, & Information Technology (Icroit 2014); Faridabad, India; 6th-8th February 2014 p. 229-234
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- Description: Body Area Wireless Sensor Networks (BAWSNs) are self-organizing networks capable of monitoring health intrinsic data of a patient. BAWSNs extended with a health care application can be used to perform medical assessments by remotely monitoring patients. The accuracy of medical assessments fundamentally depends on the correctness of the data received from the BAWSN. However, data errors may arise at the sensor or during transmission across the wireless sensor network. Therefore, it is imperative to measure the health intrinsic data of a patient precisely. The formulated measurable properties in our work precisely measure the performance of the BAWSN in a remote Healthcare Monitoring Application (HMA). In this paper, we collated various performances using the measurable properties in our real-time test-bed and presented a comprehensive evaluation of these properties in a BAWSN.
Supporting regional aged care nursing staff to manage residents’ behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, in real time, using the nurses’ behavioural assistant (NBA) : A pilot site 'end-user attitudes’ trial
- Authors: Klein, Britt , Clinnick, Lisa , Chesler, Jessica , Stranieri, Andrew , Bignold, Adam , Dazeley, Richard , McLaren, Suzanne , Lauder, Sue , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2017 Global Telehealth Meeting, GT 201; Adelaide, Australia; 22nd-24th November 2017; published in Telehealth for our Ageing Society (part of the Studies in Health Technology and Informatics series) Vol. 246, p. 24-28
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: This regional pilot site ‘end-user attitudes’ study explored nurses’ experiences and impressions of using the Nurses’ Behavioural Assistant (NBA) (a knowledge-based, interactive ehealth system) to assist them to better respond to behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and will be reported here. Methods: Focus groups were conducted, followed by a four-week pilot site ‘end-user attitudes’ trial of the NBA at a regional aged care residential facility (ACRF). Brief interviews were conducted with consenting nursing staff. Results: Focus group feedback (N = 10) required only minor cosmetic changes to the NBA prototype. Post pilot site end-user interview data (N = 10) indicated that the regional ACRF nurses were positive and enthusiastic about the NBA, however several issues were also identified. Conclusions: Overall the results supported the utility of the NBA to promote a person centred care approach to managing BPSD. Slight modifications may be required to maximise its uptake across all ACRF nursing staff.
Developing an interactive electronic maternity record
- Authors: Homer, Caroline , Catling-Paull, Christine , Sinclair, Dee , Faizah, Nor , Balasubramanian, Venki , Foureur, Maralyn , Hoang, Doan , Lawrence, Elaine
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Midwifery Vol. 18, no. 6 (2010), p. 384-389
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Women have a strong need to be involved in their own maternity care. Pregnancy hand-held records encourage women's participation in their maternity care; gives them an increased sense of control and improves communication among care providers. They have been successfully used in the UK and New Zealand for almost 20 years. Despite evidence that supports the use of hand-held records, widespread introduction has not occurred in Australia. The need for an electronic version of pregnancy hand-held records has become apparent, especially after the introduction of the Electronic Medical Record in Australia. A personal digital assistant (PDA) was developed as an interactive antenatal electronic maternity record that health-care providers could use in any setting and women could access using the internet. This article will describe the testing of the antenatal electronic maternity record.
ECG reduction for wearable sensor
- Authors: Allami, Ragheed , Stranieri, Andrew , Balasubramanian, Venki , Jelinek, Herbert
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Proceedings Paper
- Relation: 2016 12th International Conference on Signal-Image Technology & Internet-Based Systems (SITIS); Naples, Italy; 28th November-1st December 2016 p. 520-525
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- Description: The transmission, storage and analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) data in real-time is essential for remote patient monitoring with wearable ECG devices and mobile ECG contexts. However, this remains a challenge to achieve within the processing power and the storage capacity of mobile devices. ECG reduction algorithms have an important role to play in reducing the processing requirements for mobile devices, however many existing ECG reduction and compression algorithms are computationally expensive to execute in mobile devices and have not been designed for real-time computation and incremental data arrival. In this paper, we describe a computationally naive, yet effective, algorithm that achieves high ECG reduction rates while maintaining key diagnostic features including PR, QRS, ST, QT and RR intervals. While reduction does not enable ECG waves to be reproduced, the ability to transmit key indicators (diagnostic features) using minimal computational resources, is particularly useful in mobile health contexts involving power constrained sensors and devices. Results of the proposed reduction algorithm indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other ECG reduction algorithms at a reduction/compression ratio (CR) of 5:1. If power or processing capacity is low, the algorithm can readily switch to a compression ratio of up to 10: 1 while still maintaining an error rate below 10%.
A count data model for heart rate variability forecasting and premature ventricular contraction detection
- Authors: Allami, Ragheed , Stranieri, Andrew , Balasubramanian, Venki , Jelinek, Herbert
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Signal Image and Video Processing Vol. 11, no. 8 (2017), p. 1427-1435
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- Description: Heart rate variability (HRV) measures including the standard deviation of inter-beat variations (SDNN) require at least 5 min of ECG recordings to accurately measure HRV. In this paper, we predict, using counts data derived from a 3-min ECG recording, the 5-min SDNN and also detect premature ventricular contraction (PVC) beats with a high degree of accuracy. The approach uses counts data combined with a Poisson-generated function that requires minimal computational resources and is well suited to remote patient monitoring with wearable sensors that have limited power, storage and processing capacity. The ease of use and accuracy of the algorithm provide opportunity for accurate assessment of HRV and reduce the time taken to review patients in real time. The PVC beat detection is implemented using the same count data model together with knowledge-based rules derived from clinical knowledge.
Continuous patient monitoring with a patient centric agent : A block architecture
- Authors: Uddin, Ashraf , Stranieri, Andrew , Gondal, Iqbal , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Access Vol. 6, no. (2018), p. 32700-32726
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- Description: The Internet of Things (IoT) has facilitated services without human intervention for a wide range of applications, including continuous remote patient monitoring (RPM). However, the complexity of RPM architectures, the size of data sets generated and limited power capacity of devices make RPM challenging. In this paper, we propose a tier-based End to End architecture for continuous patient monitoring that has a patient centric agent (PCA) as its center piece. The PCA manages a blockchain component to preserve privacy when data streaming from body area sensors needs to be stored securely. The PCA based architecture includes a lightweight communication protocol to enforce security of data through different segments of a continuous, real time patient monitoring architecture. The architecture includes the insertion of data into a personal blockchain to facilitate data sharing amongst healthcare professionals and integration into electronic health records while ensuring privacy is maintained. The blockchain is customized for RPM with modifications that include having the PCA select a Miner to reduce computational effort, enabling the PCA to manage multiple blockchains for the same patient, and the modification of each block with a prefix tree to minimize energy consumption and incorporate secure transaction payments. Simulation results demonstrate that security and privacy can be enhanced in RPM with the PCA based End to End architecture.
A patient agent to manage blockchains for remote patient monitoring
- Authors: Uddin, Ashraf , Stranieri, Andrew , Gondal, Iqbal , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 7th International Conference on Global Telehealth, GT 2018; Colombo, Sri Lanka; 10th-11th October 2018; published in Studies in Health Technology and Informatics Vol. 254, p. 105-115
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Continuous monitoring of patient's physiological signs has the potential to augment traditional medical practice, particularly in developing countries that have a shortage of healthcare professionals. However, continuously streamed data presents additional security, storage and retrieval challenges and further inhibits initiatives to integrate data to form electronic health record systems. Blockchain technologies enable data to be stored securely and inexpensively without recourse to a trusted authority. Blockchain technologies also promise to provide architectures for electronic health records that do not require huge government expenditure that challenge developing nations. However, Blockchain deployment, particularly with streamed data challenges existing Blockchain algorithms that take too long to place data in a block, and have no mechanism to determine whether every data point in every stream should be stored in such a secure way. This article presents an architecture that involves a Patient Agent, coordinating the insertion of continuous data streams into Blockchains to form an electronic health record.
- Description: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
Availability measure model for Assistive Care Loop Framework using wireless sensor networks
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki , Hoang, Doan
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 6th International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, ISSNIP 2010,Brisbane, 7th-10th Dec, 2010 published in Proceedings of ISSNIP 2010 Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, p. 281-286
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Nowadays, body area wireless sensor networks (BAWSNs) applications are increasingly being used in in-house health monitoring systems. These applications have stringent timing requirements and often run continuously without interruptions. Hence, it becomes imperative to determine the operational continuity of the BAWSN applications by measuring their availability. The BAWSN applications rely on the collection of data within a critical time from all of the source sensor nodes rather than the data from an individual source. Subsequently, the measure of availability for a BAWSN application should be based on the time and the data delivery from all the sensor nodes. Taking into account these specific characteristics and the constraints of the BAWSN, we develop a model to measure the availability of a BAWSN application based on the unavailable time. The proposed model is evaluated through a series of experiments conducted in our existing Assistive Care Loop Framework (ACLF). Furthermore, we also develop an analogous theoretical model to evaluate the availability of a BAWSN application
SOAP based assistive care loop using wireless sensor networks
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki , Hoang, Doan , Ahmad, N. F.
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 2008 IEEE International Symposium on IT in Medicine and Education, ITME 2008; Xiamen; China; 12th-14th December 2008 published in Proceedings of 2008 IEEE International Symposium on IT in Medicine and Education, ITME 2008 p. 409-414
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: There is a growing trend towards in-house health monitoring system. It is now feasible to place a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or smart phone in the hands of care-delivery staff and the patients regardless of where they are located or what their duties might be. In such instance, the staff would be able to access records and communicate with patients in a flexible and cost effective way. This paper proposes an Active Care Loop Framework (ACLF). The strength of our ACLF is to monitor disease over longer period of time and to consult patient who are then able to discuss their conditions with the care staff. Where patients need emergency intervention, an assistive health monitoring system can provide a direct communication channel to summon assistance and to enable with managing the situation until the assistance arrives. With a regular schedule of monitoring and consultation, the assistive ACLF has the capacity to forestall and manage non-critical situations and therefore the system can be deployed to minimize the rate and costs of hospitalizations. © 2008 Crown.
- Description: Proceedings of 2008 IEEE International Symposium on IT in Medicine and Education, ITME 2008
An efficient selective miner consensus protocol in blockchain oriented iot smart monitoring
- Authors: Uddin, Ashraf , Stranieri, Andrew , Gondal, Iqbal , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference Paper
- Relation: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, ICIT 2019; Melbourne; Australia; 13th-15th February 2019 Vol. 2019-February, p. 1135-1142
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- Description: Blockchains have been widely used in Internet of Things(IoT) applications including smart cities, smart home and smart governance to provide high levels of security and privacy. In this article, we advance a Blockchain based decentralized architecture for the storage of IoT data produced from smart home/cities. The architecture includes a secure communication protocol using a sign-encryption technique between power constrained IoT devices and a Gateway. The sign encryption also preserves privacy. We propose that a Software Agent executing on the Gateway selects a Miner node using performance parameters of Miners. Simulations demonstrate that the recommended Miner selection outperforms Proof of Works selection used in Bitcoin and Random Miner Selection.
- Description: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology
AppA : Assistive patient monitoring cloud platform for active healthcare applications
- Authors: Balasubramanian, Venki , Stranieri, Andrew , Kaur, Ranjit
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous Information Management and Communication, ACM IMCOM 2015; Bali, Indonesia; 8th-10th January 2015
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Continuous, remote monitoring of patients using wearable sensors can facilitate early detection of many conditions and can help to manage the growing healthcare crisis worldwide. A remote patient monitoring application consists of many emerging services such as wireless wearable sensor configuration, patient registration and authentication, collaborative consultation of doctors, storage and maintenance of electronic health record. The provision of these services requires the development and maintenance of a remote healthcare monitoring application (HMA) that includes a body area wireless sensor network (BASWN) and Health Applications (HA) to detect specific health issues. In addition, the deployment of HMAs for different hospitals is not easily scalable owing to the heterogeneous nature of hardware and software involved. Cloud computing overcomes this aspect by allowing simple and easy maintenance of ICT infrastructure. In this work, we report a realtime- like cloud based architecture known as Assistive Patient monitoring cloud Platform for Active healthcare applications (AppA) using a delegate pattern. The built AppA is highly scalable and capable of spawning new instances based on the monitoring requirements from the health care providers, and is aligned with scalable economic models.