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AI-Driven Information and Communication Technologies, Services, and Applications for Next-Generation Healthcare System

Vijayakumar Ponnusamy1*, A. Vasuki2, J. Christopher Clement3 and P. Eswaran4

1ECE Department, SRM IST, Kattankulathur, Chennai, India
2Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Vadapalani, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
3School of Electronics Engineering, VIT, Vellore, India
4ECE Department, SRM IST, Chennai, India

Abstract

Today, the introduction of communication technology has turned out an immense influence on healthcare. Communication technology enables real-time monitoring of a patient remotely to detect the health metrics and disease symptoms at an affordable price. Community-level health monitoring is also possible through these communication technologies, which saves time and enables us to serve more patients. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based communication ensures reliable communication, which is a vital factor in the healthcare industry. AI with the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare makes self-diagnosing capability via wireless body area networks (WBANs), which uses wearable sensing devices. The wearable WBAN is a challenging one because it involves radiation of EM waves on the human body. mHealth is another technology that enables one to reach healthcare services anywhere at any time through the mobile application using specialized communication protocols. Augmented and virtual reality allows efficient diagnosis and does surgery using real-time digital visual aids with more precision. All those technologies require specialized wireless communication. Thus, this chapter intended to cover challenges, methodology, communication protocols, and applications of IoT-based healthcare, mHealth healthcare, body area networks, and augmented and virtual reality.

Keywords: Augmented reality, AI-driven communication, healthcare, Internet of Things, mHealth, wireless body area networks, virtual reality

1.1 Introduction: Overview of Communication Technology and Services for Healthcare

In recent days, communication technologies play a vital role in upcoming healthcare solutions. The drastic improvement in communication technologies, especially in the areas of wireless communication, offer anytime-anywhere connectivity to support advanced services for healthcare.

In our globe, the population is one of the main aspects to develop the most modernized technologies to reach the information as much as simple and easier to other people; most of the technologies have achieved its higher level to this advanced method by adopting those features. Uncertainly, some sectors are not utilizing the technology properly even though it helps mankind; the medical healthcare system is one of those. In the more regions of the world, the population is in denser growth and its impossible for a doctor or a specialized one to take care of every person they are examining and vice versa for patients also not able to reach doctors at a certain time [1], in these kinds of situations, eHealth is used to take care of these responsibilities. Together with the development of the internet, eHealth is one of the widely accepted healthcare services. It encompasses the applications of communication technologies for the support of healthcare activities. Telemedicine, telecare, clinical information networks, and analysis of heterogeneous data sources are the various branches of eHealth [2]. eHealthcare system design is illustrated in Figure 1.1.

This technology refers to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs); these are the tools used by the healthcare professionals and also by the patients to diagnosis the health condition by themselves or with their relatives. It is a digitalized technology that supports capturing, storing, processing, and exchanging the information to provide the best healthcare support. The base principle of the ICT is to prevent and diagnosis the problem in an efficient way through digital technology; the ICT technology transformation in medical sectors are varied according to the platform. The wireless technology has emerged as a drastic one that can be unavoidable, so the smartphone technologies enable remote monitoring systems. These are used to avoid the condition of an emergency condition by detecting in initial conditions [1], so it is highly adopted. It refers to projects that allow the telehealth to promote patient-centered healthcare at a lower cost; the quality of the healthcare system is also more reliable in the technology. It enables a new way of communication between the doctors and the patients, to reduce the time for the patient to reach the doctor's place.

Figure 1.1 eHealthcare system design.

Even though it has many advantages, the implementation of the ICT in practice is quite a complex one and requires a different level of changes by the healthcare providers and the healthcare organizations. It facilitates the sharing of data across the continuum of care across healthcare delivery organizations and different geographical areas. It mainly avoids unnecessary therapeutic interventions through the healthcare establishment and patient involvement.

This system involves the diagnosis of the patient from the point of the service area to initialize the method; the required devices are included into the eHealthcare system that will provide the service that has the real-time conferencing with the data between a doctor and a patient; it consists of the session that enables the prototype to client service media application. The data generated through the conferencing are recorded and sent through the service layer to attain a level of security and authenticity of the service and then to store the data in the data warehouse; it contains a collection of data that are used by the medical professionals [3]; the storing data vary for the same user for different readings; for those purposes, the structured query language is used because of the complexity of data in database relational database is more sophisticated. However, it might have an issue of managing larger database complexity. It has more advanced security features of data handling before inserting the data into the data server; it cleans the data, loads it and analyzes it for any vulnerabilities. Finally, it visualizes the loaded data for the analytical purpose [1-3]; the SQL structure handles data handling works.

The acquired data sources are accessed by the authorized healthcare member where the entire medical healthcare statistics of the patient are all displayed to the specialized person. It has also maintained a healthcare decision system that is more emerging features that will provide the solutions for the already existing diagnosis. This eliminates the repetitive task of producing the same results. It is also connected with the health records system and the research centers, so the data will serve as a tool for the modern medical development process. The regular steps carried in the day-to-day medical procedures are all automated in the eHealthcare system and the accuracy is one of the prominent features in this method. The laboratory information system provides the ease of access to the records and manages and stores the data for clinical laboratories [4], tracking of the test orders and sending those data in the digitalized form through a searchable database.

Mobile health is another critical paradigm, which overcomes the geographical, organizational, and temporal barriers in healthcare services. The idea has evolved in accordance with the technological changes in communication protocols that have changed from GSM, GPRS, wireless LAN to 4G and, more recently, 5G communication technologies [5]. The wireless ECG transmissions, wireless ambulance services, video images and teleradiology, and other integrated mobile telemedical monitoring systems are some examples of applications of 2G and 3G technologies. The evolution of mHealth for personalized medical systems with flexible functionalities is possible because of the development of 4G networks. Moreover, the reduced latency and good media services in healthcare are achieved with the advent of 5G communication technologies in mobile healthcare.

Personalized health is user-specific, and it is targeted toward taking patient-specific decisions. It is also called otherwise as adaptive health. In personalized health, the sources of data include wearable devices and sensors with implementable micro- or nanotechnologies. The data collected from these devices are combined at the decision center for making up any decision [6]. The idea can be enhanced to P4 medicine, in which the data sources could be the genetic information from each individual.

Table 1.1 Role of communication technologies in healthcare.

• Health information networks
• Electronic health records
• Telemedicine services
• Wearable and portable devices
• Health portals

• Digital health information software
• Digital health strategy

• eHealth measure
• 51% of people with multiple chronic...