Page 113 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

TOWARD THE DATA-DRIVEN "SMART" AND "GREEN" HOSPITAL-CARE

1,2
2
B. Spyropoulos , Α. Alexandropoulos , N. Boci , E. Chatziapostolou , E. Frappa , E. Georgiadou ,
2
2
2
2
2
I. Louts , I. Pantelakis , M. Poultsaki , M. Xenaki
2
2
2
1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Athens, Greece
2 Graduate Program “Information Technologies in Medicine and Biology”, Department of Informatics
and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT Indicative aspects of “green” technologies in Health-care
are described, as design, standards, maturity, adoption etc.
The Hospital is the most complex and representative “Green” manufacturing and proper employment of Medical
equipment, reagents, medicaments and disposal of various
establishment of the society and nowadays, among the most wastes, are also briefly addressed.
costly ones. ICTs may rationalize personnel-efforts and
reduce energy and material-wasting, to enable health-care The Hospital is an ancient, complex, though representative
coverage, of unprivileged social-groups. The aim of the establishment of the society, and nowadays it constitutes the
paper is to present the most effective and efficient means most multifarious, multifaceted and costly one. ICTs may
and tools, reducing unnecessary cost, as Mobile IP- rationalize the personnel-efforts [3] and reduce energy and
network, Service-oriented architecture, provided to other material-wasting [4], to enable health-care coverage, of
components, through a communication protocol, over α unprivileged social-groups. The aim of the paper is twofold:
network, Ubiquitous-computing, Femtocells, small, low- • To briefly present the most effective and efficient ICTs
power cellular base-stations, typically designed for use in a means and tools, reducing unnecessary cost.
hospital-department, ward-room or unit, Wireless mesh- • To “match” the available appropriate tools and
networks, made-up of radio-nodes, organized in a mesh- methods to the needs of the corresponding Hospital
topology, supporting intra-hospital data-exchange, training Departments, Clinics, Laboratories and Services.
Multimedia-sharing over wireless networks, for real-time Methodologically, this task is being accomplished, by
or compressed data-streaming over IP/wireless-networks monitoring and evaluating the relevant to the subject-matter
for communication or archiving. Green-computing in recent scientific publications and published Industrial
wireless-networks, are limiting people and material intra- Property Documents (IP-Docs), predicting the near future.
hospital “circulation” and, thus, they are enabling the Finally, a cardinal aspect of a successful accomplishment of
necessary environmentally friendly and smooth procedures. such an endeavor is the meticulous planning, for each
Standardization, policies and regulations for green involved Institution, of the procurement methods, i.e. the
communications and computing, in “green” Hospitals are actions of obtaining or procuring ICTs, Biomedical
indispensable and ICTs enable procedures optimization, Technology (BMT) Equipment, Services and Innovation.
solving energy- and material-waste problems, reducing the Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) [5], challenges
overall operational-cost, in the emerging “smart, green industry from the demand side, to develop innovative
and networked” Hospital, in favor of the people in need. solutions, for example covering some Hospital needs. It
provides a first customer reference that allows companies to
Keywords— ICTs, Mobile IP-networks, Service-oriented create competitive advantage on the market. PCP enables
architecture, Ubiquitous-computing, Femtocells, Wireless public procurers to compare alternative potential
mesh-networks, Standardization and regulation, Green- approaches and filter-out the best possible solutions that the
computing, Green smart Hospital. market can deliver, to address a specific public need.
Public Procurement of Innovative (PPI) solutions facilitates
1. INTRODUCTION a wide diffusion of innovation in the market [6]. PPI
provides a large enough demand, to provide the incentives
for the industry to invest. Expecting wide
This paper presents some important perspectives on “Green commercialization, the providers hope to bring innovative
ICTs” [1], focused on the contemporary Hospital, by technologies to the market, with the quality and the price
discussing its various facets and showing how they could be needed, for mass market deployment. This enables the
implemented, in order to reduce personnel efforts and public sector to modernize public services, as Hospitals,
superfluous costs. It examines various ways and means of Universities, R&D Facilities etc. with better value for
making ICTs “smarter” and “greener” [2], by using money technology and creates the opportunity for growth
Information Technology, as a tool and an actuator, to for the involved companies.
improve and promote environmental and economical
sustainability aspects, in the modern networked Health-care.

978-92-61-24291-6/CFP1768P-ART © 2017 ITU – 97 – Kaleidoscope