2010-07 - Korea IT Times

U-health
education, administration, and research.
The term e-Health is often used as an
umbrella term that includes tele-health,
electronic medical records and other components
of health IT. E-Health is a large
scale multi-disciplined area which corresponds
to a broad field of applications
spanning from clinical applications, (e.g.
tele-consultation, clinical or medical decision
support, vital signs monitoring, home
tele-care, ambulatory healthcare and e-
Prescribing) to personalized health professional
continuing education and e-
Prevention through longitudinal healthcare
event recording and lifetime health
care records.
And then what is the key difference between
e-Health and u-Health? In the aspect
of u-Health devices, u-Health needs
several functions, that is, performing one
or a few dedicated functions (embedded),
using technology while moving (mobile)
and using devices while the user's hands,
voice, eyes or attention are actively engaged
with the physical environment
(wearable). In the aspect of u-Health networking,
it requires connecting devices,
embedded in such a way that the connectivity
is unobtrusive and always available
(pervasive), linking changes in the environment
with computer systems (contextaware)
and perceiving its environment and
reacting accordingly (sentient). As the result
of the above-mentioned ubiquitous
functions, u-Health systems, work in concert
to support people, carrying out everyday
life activities, tasks and rituals in easy,
natural way by using information and intelligence
that is hidden in the network
connecting these devices (ambient).
U-Health is not linking patients to the
healthcare providers with some electrical
devices and IT, but building up an ergonomic
human-centered healthcare system.
And so u-Health works anytime,
anywhere and always on. In a seamless
way, u-Health gathers and exchanges appropriate
and accurate data from various
sources, and responds just in real time to
patients in need, and transmits medical information,
knowledge and relevant expertise
to those who are in need of care.
Through patient-oriented medical interventions,
the ambient and seamless U-
Health encourages a focus on preventive
measures and greater emphasis on selfcare.
In addition, it can aid in realizing
rapid changes in a nation's healthcare infrastructures,
financing, administration,
management and healthcare delivery systems
and procedures such as reduced administration
costs and eliminating "inappropriate
and unnecessary" emergency
services. Moreover, reduced administrative
and medical costs due to more efficient
information flow and more effective
workflows will further reduce the cost of
products and services.
U-Healthcare can include not only individual
purchasers such as patients, caregivers
or physicians, but also large group
purchasers such as healthcare retailers,
hospitals or health maintenance organizations.
Large group purchasers can also include
communities such as senior groups,
virtual communities, sociopolitical advocacy
groups or even multinational corporations.
U-Healthcare providers perceive
value arising out of reduced consumer
search costs, product and service promotion
costs and business transaction costs.
Similarly, patients perceive value arising
out of reduced product and service search
costs and transaction costs. In addition,
customer-focused U-Healthcare also provides
improved shopping experiences and
user convenience.
On the basis of ambient and seamless u-
Health technologies and U-healthcare,
digitalized e-Hospitals establish u-
Hospital. U-hospital is not the linking and
gathering of several e-Hospitals but the
systematizing, converging and integrating
of healthcare, in-hospital and out-of-hospital
healthcare, personal and public healthcare,
physical and mental healthcare and
moreover health and social services.
Under u-Hospital, healthcare will be
given to patients regardless of whether
they are in or out of the hospital. In particular,
on the same financial ground, including
private and public insurances, out-ofhospital
care will be no less generously
covered than in-hospital care. Today our
most important healthcare problems involve
chronic diseases, deaths from suicide,
homicide and accidents, mental illness,
drug abuse and genetic disorders. To
deal with these problems effectively we
need to integrate personal and public
healthcare with u-Health technologies and
under u-Hospital. Most healthcare problems
today have a significant emotional
and behavioral component and we need to
integrate physical and mental healthcare
through u-Health technologies. Healthcare
is delivered to patients who are in
need of more than healthcare. They include
the elderly, the emotionally disturbed,
the physically and mentally handicapped,
alcoholics and other drug abusers
and so on. Because these patients need an
integration of health and social services,
we will have to integrate ambient u-Health
technologies into u-Hospital.
Methodologically, it follows from u-
Hospital that 'How far is one, a patient or
not, able to live relatively undisturbed in
his/her daily life, at the same time to be
under observation, and to carry on his/her
typical daily activities, while maintaining
contact with his/her physician anywhere
when needed?'
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