An Integrated Cloud-based Healthcare Infrastructure

We present a cloud-based healthcare system that integrates a formal care system (DACAR) with an informal care system (Microsoft Health Vault). The system provides high levels of security and privacy within a cloud environment, enabling sharing of both health records and the access rights, along the patient pathway. We also define a case study that can help in evaluating and in demonstrating the usefulness of a cloud-based integrated health care system.

I. Introduction

Although much research effort has been put into the design and development of novel e-Health services and applications, their interoperability and integration remains a challenging issue [1]. Firstly, health services deal with large amounts of private data which needs to be both fully protected and readily available to clinicians who need to use it [2]. Health care providers often lack the capability to commit the financial resources for either the research or the infrastructure required [3]. In addition, the public is often skeptical about whether IT systems can be trusted with private clinical information. Past failures have fuelled a culture to restrict any innovation by both members of the public and the politicians responsible for health services [4].