What is Healthcare Computing

With current technological advancements, it is now possible to monitor and control certain aspects in daily lives using digital devices. One such area is in healthcare where it is now possible to measure vital signs using sensors attached to an embedded device. This chapter looks at the development of a framework for monitoring patients in remote areas using embedded devices. The chapter outlines a design as well as requirements for deploying a monitoring system. The design includes three modules, a sensor module responsible for measuring vital signs of the patient such as body temperature, blood pressure, heart-rate, and respiratory rate; a processing module that analyses the measured vital signs for storing and transmitting; and a transmitting module for sending and receiving data thus enabling the system to be part of IP networks. The chapter concludes with a conceptual model of the framework outlining the operations of the system in terms of measuring vital signs of patients as well as how healthcare professionals access these measured signs.