A web service approach for integrating e-Health Data in a low bandwidth environment

Abstract

This paper describes a batch algorithm for integrating heterogeneous e-Health data using Web Service Model in a low bandwidth environment. The focus is on the problem of higher volume of data stored in relational databases and the integration architecture with uncertain schema. In specific the paper presents a batch algorithm for efficient integration and management of heterogeneous health records in an environment with higher network disconnection. The web service application for implementation was developed using Visual Basic .NET. The validation and test cases of the software was done using Demographical Surveillance data sets as well as baseline census data for sample vital registration with verbal autopsy. The result indicates that the proposed algorithm is capable of transferring data in a network with higher disconnection. The analysis of the execution time among four configured relational databases indicates that time taken to transfer data between MySQL engine and SQL server engine is shorter compared to other relation databases under the test. In addition, the architecture and the embedded algorithm may be useful for integrating e-Health records from different research group so that scientists can access them at a single point.