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available to them, the advantages of utilizing IT will not be all that appealing, regardless if it may be more error-free, efficient
and enables multi-tasking to be carried out quickly and reliably with the development of technical advancement. Adapting to
unfamiliar things may be difficult; more so when handling criti- cal tasks in particular. It is vital that constant adjustment are
made to enable all the applications can take full advantage of the available technology.
Figure 1.2: Biosensors attached to the back of a patient
FONG et al 2011
1.2.3 End of Users
Patients are individuals who receive medical services or treat- ment including schedule check-ups and are the system’s end
users. However, patient does not reflect that a person is in poor health condition. Individuals in good health can also be regard-
ed as patients. Regarding our case study, a group of patients participated in the backpack study on children. The backs of the
patients wearing backpacks of various load will be attached to a set of sensors. Figure 1.2 illustrates the means of attaching the
sensor to the back of a patient. Examination of Figure 1.2 ena-
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bles us to discuss the patient’s first impression. Each sensor that pools into a network of sensors attached to the back is directly
connected by wire to a data collecting device. This method is affected by movement; therefore we can clearly see the ad-
vantage of utilizing wireless sensors. Therefore, the question in hand would be, why not go wireless? There are 3 main reasons
for using the wires. Firstly, the sensors should be made small as it will be attached to a child’s back. However, it would be diffi-
cult for it to be small as for the sensor to be wireless requires an installation of a battery. Next is the issue in wave coverage by
default which makes it a problem in going wireless as the body and the bag will cause disturbance. Lastly, due to physical sepa-
ration of the sensor the number of movements would affect the accuracy of the measurements. Therefore, for the stated reasons,
it is unfeasible to utilize a wireless solution and the patient will need to withstand using the wires throughout the experiment.
1.2.4 The authorities
Cost effectiveness is usually what concerns the authorities and funding agencies. Therefore, benefits to the community in the
long run must be clearly stated as it might be difficult to gain funding for this case study, regardless of the advantages as stat-
ed earlier. This is because it will take a long time for a clear re- duction in back pain trend to be attained and the realization of
its benefits. The political issues will not be explained as it is not within the scope of this research. In obtaining capital for tech-
nology based projects, a rule of thumb is to provide immediate results. This describes the general issue of inadequate financial
funding for the utilization of technology in inventive healthcare solutions.
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1.3 Development of Healthcare Information
This segment will focus briefly on the evolution of bioinformat- ics and healthcare over the past few decades. For thousands of
years, medical science has gone through constant development compared to IT which is a relatively newly emerged topic that
commenced from the invention of the first computer in circa 1936 by Konrad Zuse. Right after the emergence of computers,
comes in information storage devices. Computer networking whereby computers are linked together in a network made health
informatics possible. It all started after World War II where tech- nology is made more available and the health informatics concept
just appeared. This provided an opportunity for connecting hospi- tals together in the cyber world and recent development of com-
putational intelligence has made a variety of services accessible. The collaboration of information technology, multimedia tech-
nology and health has made health maintenance and life-saving easily achievable. Figure 1.3 depicts technology supporting a
wide variety of healthcare and medical services.
Figure 1.3 Telemedicine supports a range of applications
FONG et al 2011
