SmartMedDev 2016 Abstracts

Full Papers
Full Papers
Paper Nr: 3
Title:

Security Scores for Medical Devices
Authors:

Johannes Sametinger and Jerzy Rozenblit
Abstract: Medical devices are indispensable for millions of patients worldwide. They increasingly depend on software and hardware components, and interoperate with other devices wirelessly and through the Internet. The sensitive nature of health records, the increasing interoperability of medical devices, and the fact that human well-being and life are at stake, puts medical device security at the forefront in healthcare technology. In this paper, we contrast medical devices’ safety with their security and introduce a stratification of security scores. We need such a grading to increase security awareness in the medical domain and as a guideline for designers and developers who will have to act appropriately to ensure devices’ trustworthiness and as a basis for stakeholders’ course of action when devices pose risks. We motivate and illustrate the scores by examples.
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Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Towards a Peer-to-Peer Communication Model for Mobile Telecare Services
Authors:

Akio Sashima and Koichi Kurumatani
Abstract: In this paper, we describe a peer-to-peer communication model for a mobile telecare service. It is proposed to reduce the service management costs of a conventional mobile telecare service based on a server-client communication model. The peer-to-peer mobile telecare service consists of a mobile physiological sensor, two smartphones, and a connection management server. In the service, when a caregiver, e.g., family member, requires to know current physiological statuses of a cared person, e.g., elderly person, the smartphone directly sends the sensing data of the cared person to the caregiver’s smartphone without a central data server. To realize the peer-to-peer communication model in mobile phone’s infrastructure, which includes private networks, we propose a communication protocol based on a NAT-traversal technique and a data compression mechanism for preventing packet loss. We have confirmed that the prototype system works well on the current mobile phone’s infrastructure that consists of 4G (LTE) and private networks.
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Paper Nr: 5
Title:

Protocol Adapter: A Reusable Solution to Interoperability and Integration Issues in mHealth Data-collection Systems
Authors:

Alexandru Serbanati, Marcello Morena and Laura Lancia
Abstract: Healthcare has been changing in the last years due to several inputs, the main ones being moving from assistive to preventive care and the introduction of patient-centric care models. In support to this tendency, the number of consumer mobile applications for remote healthcare delivery is rapidly increasing and the use of mobile medical sensor devices is also following. Standardization in the domain of data collection for mHealth is still moving its first steps and, as a consequence, those who aim at developing remote healthcare solutions must face significant problems related to the heterogeneity of sensor devices. In general, issues related to low interoperability and low code-reusability of data collection software in mHeatlh severely limit further developments in this sector. These issues have been addressed thanks to the Protocol Adapter which provides a single, uniform interface for both the collection of rich data and the management of medical devices. This article gives an overview of this component and its development process in order to provide a better understanding of its value when integrated in mHealth applications. After an introduction to the state of the art, the requirements for the data collection in mHealth systems are discussed. The design phase is then described along with the final architectural solution and the features of this free, open source implementation for Android are discussed. Finally, future works on the Protocol Adapter are discussed in the hope to attract the interest of device producers and of mHealth developers.
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Paper Nr: 7
Title:

High Sensitive Long Period Fiber Grating Biosensor for Cancer Biomarker Detection
Authors:

Giuseppe Quero, Marco Consales, Renato Severino, Patrizio Vaiano, Alessandra Boniello, Annamaria Sandomenico, Menotti Ruvo, Anna Borriello, Laura Diodato, Simona Zuppolini, Michele Giordano, Immacolata Cristina Nettore, Annamaria Colao, Paolo Emidio Macchia, Flavio Santorelli, Antonello Cutolo and Andrea Cusano
Abstract: We report an innovative fiber optic biosensor based on Long Period Gratings (LPGs) working in reflection configuration for real time monitoring of human Thyroglobulin (Tg), a protein marker of differentiated thyroid cancer. A standard LPG is first transformed in a practical probe working in reflection mode, and then it is coated with a single layer of atactic polystyrene (aPS) in order to increase its surrounding refractive index sensitivity and to provide, at the same time, the desired interfacial properties for a stable anti-Tg antibody. The functionalized reflection-type LPG biosensor clearly demonstrates the effectiveness and sensitivity of the developed biosensing platform, allowing the real time and label-free detection of Tg in the needle washouts of fine-needle aspiration biopsies, at concentrations useful for pre- and post-operative assessment of the biomarker levels. Analyte recognition and capture were confirmed with a parallel on fiber ELISA-like assay using, in pilot tests, the biotinylated protein and HRP-labeled streptavidin for its detection. Dose-dependent experiments showed that the detection is linearly dependent on concentration within the range between 0 and 4 ng/mL, while antibody saturation occurs for higher protein levels.
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Paper Nr: 8
Title:

An Easy Approach for the Classification of Children’s Voices based on the Fundamental Frequency Estimation
Authors:

Laura Verde, Giuseppe De Pietro and Giovanna Sannino
Abstract: Voice disorders, also called dysphonia, are qualitative and quantitative alterations of the voice. These pathologies, unfortunately, affect from 6% to 38% of children in the world. Voice disorders may have a negative impact on communication effectiveness, social development and self-esteem. The first weapon against the diffusion and the worsening of these pathologies is prevention. Acoustic analysis is one of the most important tools to appraise the state of health of a voice. It provides information about the possible presence of voice disorders by evaluating specific parameters like the Fundamental Frequency. In this paper we present an easy approach based on a mobile application for voice screening in children. The app provides a robust methodology for the fundamental frequency estimation of the voice signal by analysing in real time a child’s signal. It consists of a continuous vocalization of the vowel /a/ of five seconds in length. The methodology is also able to evaluate undesired noise that can alter the Fundamental Frequency estimation and the correct classification of the evaluated voice signal as pathological or healthy.
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