m‐Health and Mobile Communication Systems

This chapter describes the wider communications and networking aspects associated with m‐Health systems. To illustrate the complexity of the challenges for future m‐Health systems, the chapter presents an exemplar from the wireless communication and networking perspective, reflecting on specific m‐Health requirements for future services and applications. The proliferation of wireless sensor networks (WSN) in healthcare and wellness monitoring applications has led to the development of more tailored WSN configurations and standards that are more suited for personalized m‐Health. The chapter briefly introduces these networking structures, and discusses mobile health applications. The different communication tiers of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) can be configured with Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) and cellular communications networks, depending on the functionalities and range requirements of the specific m‐Health application being targeted for specific medical scenarios.