Digital Health Care (DHC) Network and IT Infrastructure Solutions

Abstract

Digital Health Care (DHC) reform suggests a new consumer paradigm in data and information processing: from Electronic Health Record (EHR) ownership to consumption of Personal Health Record (PHR); from distributed access of networked collaborative cares to centralized repository of portable records; from private information retrieval to security access control. All aspects of the new paradigm shall impose new challenges in the underlying consumer healthcare communication and network infrastructure. In this paper, I will introduce the solution utilizing a converged network layer, as well as adopting service-layer interfaces between DHC systems in an end-to-end solution (reference architecture). I also present a solution framework that incorporates service management, handheld on-demand access and consultation, quality-of-service accounting, and end-to-end system interconnection solutions.