IRIT - UMR 5505

Health is an application domain of choice for research in Computer Science and Information Systems. The term "e-Health" refers to the application of information and communication technology (ICT) to the full range of functions involved in the health sector. The aim is to improve the quality, access and efficiency of healthcare for all.

The IRIT e-Health platform offers an academic research potential to provide solutions to major challenges:

• Coordinate medical or paramedical activities around the dependent patient;
• Contribute to the seamless integration of innovative technology in the home;
• Improve the reliability of the technological environment of the dependent person;
• Delay or eliminate episodes of hospitalization.

These issues are at the core of the prospects for economic and social development, as outlined by the French National Research Agency (ANR):

"The development of technologies for the health and dependence prevention stems from strong societal needs and growing constraints which include:

• the aging of population in developed countries;
• the move towards increased prevention for disease and addiction;
• a societal increased demand for health and functional decline support in developed countries;
• a need to control healthcare costs."

These issues are at the intersection of two strategic axes of the IRIT:

• The axis "Computer Systems for the health and autonomy" which deals with all issues linking research in Computer Science and Health.
• The axis "ambient socio-technical system" that develops models and methods for pervasive and embedded systems, which are in the e-Health a preferred field of application.

A preferred application domain: home care

Faced with increased chronic degenerative diseases that require follow-up care, and with the increasing willingness of patients to seek care in a family environment in order to keep their social links, there is currently in France, as in other developed countries, new strategic directions in structuring the healthcare systems. This takes notably the form of a transfer of a large part of the activities from the hospital to the patient’s home. The hospital becomes a step in the process of care, together with surrounding care structures. People losing their autonomy (elderly, sick or disabled), in order to continue living alone, must be monitored and assisted in their daily environment.

The activities of the IRIT e-Health platform are in line with the guidance of national (ANR) and European ("Ambient Assisted Living” initiative) research programs relating to health, where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are considered an essential element for improving practice in this area.

The healthcare professionals agree on the economic and human benefits of keeping patients at home. Faced with an aging population, we want to enable dependent elderly to maintain their quality of life, rather than being housed in special institutions. Some long-term treatment usually provided in hospital can also be provided at home, at lower cost and with better patient satisfaction, if appropriate infrastructure is in place. At the technological level, this area requires a convergence of home automation, telecommunications, and monitoring techniques as well as decision-making systems to detect potentially dangerous situations for the patient and initiate appropriate alarms towards the patient’s environment (family, doctor...). Systems that integrate sensor networks and data transmission and processing, associated with the continuous monitoring of the physiological parameters of an individual are privileged objects of study for the e-Health platform.

The IRIT e-Health platform of is also concerned with providing the various players in healthcare of new opportunities to use ICT, both in the field of telecommunications and of the new interaction techniques. These technological advances can be leveraged to make more efficient the practices of the medical sector, and enable new applications. In this area, the e-Health platform promotes user-centered design methods to propose new applications adapted to the users tasks, and evaluate the usefulness and usability of these applications in their context of use.

In 2011, the platform e-Health is coordinating a national project dealing with the coordination of activities for the home care (http://www.plasosoins.org). Two projects funded by the Midi-Pyrénées Region are also underway, as well as five doctorates.

1. An evaluation-based approach

The e-Health platform provides an infrastructure geared towards the development of experimental reseach projects, with the aim to evaluate both their technical aspects and their usability.

• « in vitro » evaluation: The platform is a usability lab dedicated to e-health applications, with simulated patient or clinician rooms.
• « in vivo » evaluation: Technical solutions can be deployed in real conditions at a realistic scale, with the help of our local partners (hospital, care organizations).

2. The means

The e-Health platform infrastructure is in the premises of the ISIS engineering school (Information Technology and Information Systems for Health).

2.1. The Connected Health Lab

The platform is the e-Health "research" component of the Connected Health Lab (CHL), operated by ISIS. This is a modular research platform of 220 square meters. This space will allow for "in vitro" experiments of e-Health systems including:

• Hospital room,
• Chamber of nursing homes or retirement homes.
• Room of the patient under home care.
• Hospital room of "closed" service such as intensive care or recovery room.

The CHL will offer the hardware and software infrastructure of a health facility. From a technical point of view, these software components will be available on a virtualized architecture for high availability, and enable the connection and operation of dedicated medical tools with different health professional.

• Software for administrative monitoring (ID management)
• Electronic Patient Record.
• EAI Software for interoperability

2.2. Castres Mazamet Technopole

The e-Health platform IRIT has the support of the Castres-Mazamet area of experimentation in the field of health, with key partners such as the Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Castres-Mazamet (CHIC), the Cancer network ONCOMIP, the Cancer Registry... Castres is one of the areas in France selected to participate in a national experiment on the topic of e-Health.

This cooperation enables "in vivo" testing and validation of solutions stemming from research in e-health, by enabling deployment at realistic scale of these projects in hospitals, care centers and with home-care patients.

2.3.The platform platinnEs

The IRIT e-Health platform is the operator of the e-health innovation platform platinnEs, first and only state-labeled e-health platform in France. platinnEs offers a portfolio of recognized experts and test sites in high-tech sectors to accelerate the development of e-Health technologies and market access. platinnEs aims to achieve multi-axial tests and evaluations, including the conformity assessment of Health Information Systems and the quality of their interoperability. platinnEs is operated by the e-Health center of Toulouse, one of the poles of CNR Health, National Reference Center on Health and Autonomy.

3. Contact information

For any inquiry, please contact Rémi Bastide Remi.Bastide@irit.fr IRIT e-HEalth platform is a member of the European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance)

4. Réferences

[1] Informations européennes sur la santé et les modes de vie. Euractiv http://www.euractiv.com/fr/sante/sa...

[2] Programme : Technologies pour la Santé et l’Autonomie. Agence Nationale de la recherche, appel à projets 2008.

[3] Étude prospective sur les technologies pour la santé et l’autonomie. ALCIMED, étude réalisée à la demande de l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche et de la Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie. Octobre 2007.

[4] Usage des TIC par les patients et les citoyens en situation de fragilité dans leurs lieux de vie. Conseil Général des Technologies de l’Information, MM. Robert Picard et Jean-Pierre Souzy. Août 2007.

[5] Bien vieillir dans la société de l’information, une initiative i2010. Communication de la commission des communautés Européennes au parlement, au conseil, au comité économique et social et au comité des régions. Juin 2007.