The homecare digital ecosystem: An information system support architecture

Abstract

As the number of elderly people increases, so does the need for innovative technology enabling to keep these old persons in their own home, as long as they so desire and as is technically and medically feasible. In the framework of a regional research project we are working on an information system aiming at managing the various processes involved in caring for elderly persons in their home.We present an information system that improves the management of the workflows involved in the homecare activity. Homecare workflows are modeled using the BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation). An electronic version of the liaison logbook serves as the user interface of the workflow system. The alarms and information that are relevant to the carer's activity (nurse, doctor) are readily available when he/she logs into the system upon his/her arrival. The tasks to be performed are indicated and the carer has the opportunity to indicate whether and how these tasks have been performed. Each of the carers also has the opportunity to transmit relevant information to the other carers. The transmission of information from the home to the homecare association and back is also handled by the system. Finally, the instantiation of new workflows is made easier by the definition of patients' profiles that define typical workflows that might be useful for a specific type of patient.

A System Architecture Supporting the Agile Coordination of Homecare Services

“…The stakeholders in the homecare process differ widely in terms of their organizational structure, responsibility and technical ability [8]:…”

“…It is noteworthy that the liaison logbook contains very useful data, underused in the homecare process. Indeed, it stores information of different types: logistical information which helps for the coordination of activities, medical information, general information on the patient, any information which may help improve the quality of the homecare and possibly the detection of the patient's health change via an intelligent monitoring system [8].…”

“…This project, supported by the French region Midi-Pyrénées, aims to define a system architecture supporting the agile coordination of homecare services [8]. It will be experimented across the French region Midi-Pyrénées.…”

An Ontology-Driven Approach for the Management of Home Healthcare Process

“…However, the lack of reliable and timely intercommunication between these stakeholders seriously hamper their efficiency [2,4]. Indeed, the only communication means used by most homecare providers is a so-called ''liaison logbook'' which is a physical notebook, usually unstructured and kept at the patient's home [5,6].…”

The Decision Rules Mining Algorithm of Information System Based on Rough Set

“…From the classification of a given problem and by the indiscernibility relation and classes we can determine the knowledge reduction, deduce decision or classification rules, and provide decision support to the information systems or decision-making system [1]. In this paper, two-dimensional decision table in a relational database based on rough set decision-making system are described in detail [2].…”