Pervasive Healthcare is currently one of the hottest research topics in the area of pervasive computing focusing on the integration and cooperation of two disciplines (ICT and medical) that have a great impact on the current society. One of the main purposes of this research field consists in the design and development of information systems able to support medical professionals both improving patients’ Quality of Life and reducing medical errors and costs (continuous remote monitoring of patient’s physiological state and activity patterns, tracking of individual’s health-related activities, smart management of medical records and care professionals activities are just some examples).

 

To allow this, a multidisciplinary approach is needed, especially inside the ICT community, since pervasive healthcare involves several different research themes, from wearable and ubiquitous technologies to context-awareness, sensor data fusion, artificial intelligence, expert systems, databases and user-friendly interfaces. The suggested technologies must also contend with the resource limitations (most critically energy and secondarily, transmission bandwidth) associated with commercial devices and communication infrastructures, and security and privacy issues related to critical information.

 

PerHealth aims to provide a forum for the interaction of these multiple areas as an important chance to discuss and understand what aspects have to be considered to provide effective pervasive healthcare systems.