Protecting privacy in remote-patient monitoring

With ubiquitous Internet accessibility, audio-video-based remote-patient monitoring is becoming a viable option for people who are responsible for providing in-home healthcare management. In Japan's rapidly aging society, many elderly patients who have lost mobility, speech, or memory live with their families. Although they do not necessarily need intense medical care, these patients require constant attention to ensure their safety. Broadband audio and video introduce a novel possibility for applying remote-monitoring technology to home healthcare. For example, various MPEG compression technologies can transmit high-quality audio-video via the Internet so that a family member can use an office PC or wireless mobile terminal to monitor a bedridden patient's image and vital signs while a caregiver runs errands. Using live audio and video streaming in this manner, however, raises privacy concerns. Transmitting unprotected audio-visual signals, compressed in a standard format, over the Internet carries the risk that someone can monitor these transmissions, whether accidentally or intentionally.