CREATING A LOC BASED PORTABLE

HEALTH-CARE PLATFORM

Using a Universal Mobile NFC Host Environment

Babak Akhgar, Fazilatur Rahman, Lukasz Jopek, Jawed I. Siddiqi, Sally Atkinson

Alberto Savoldelli, Doris Prato, Secondo Montrucchio, Federico Guella

Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, S1 1WB, Sheffield, U.K.

Brian James, Mike Pinkerton

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, Rotherham, S60 2UD U.K.

András Vilmos

SafePay Systems Ltd. Budapest, Hungary

Keywords: Lab-On-Chip (LOC), Micro-Array, Mobile, NFC.

Abstract: This paper presents our recent plan to provide support for a portable diagnostic health care platform (namely

POCEMON) based on Lab-On-Chip (LOC) concept. The idea is based on our achievements on creating a

host environment that combines mobile phones/PDAs with the Near Field Communication (NFC) wireless

technology to further support mobile diagnostic health care applications. NFC enabled mobile phone based

host environment works as a reference platform regardless of the phone type and the nature of the services

required. In connection to this, we will describe further insights on how this cutting edge technology may be

leveraged in the health care sector providing efficient point-of-care monitoring and diagnosis.

1 COMBINING LOC AND NFC

FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS

Use of miniaturized devices in molecular diagnostics

has gained wide spread popularity. The detection of

genomic and proteomic sequences has diagnostic

and large prognostic value. This impact can be easily

enhanced by using diagnostic lab-on-a-chip (LOC)

devices at the primary care level for the diagnosis of

the significant autoimmune disorders. Lab-on-Chip

(LOC) refers to a single chip miniature device that

performs biological procedures in analytical

chemistry enabling fast response and portable, low

cost analysis data suitable for real-time operating

conditions for a wide variety of health and life

science applications such as the diagnosis of genetic

disorders or the testing of food and water supplies

for contamination etc (Ghafar-Zadeh and Sawan,

2008; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab-on-a-chip).

Such devices integrate fluid-handling functions such

as sample preparation, analysis, separation, and

detection and combines electronics with biology to

open new application areas such as point-of-care

diagnosis, on-chip DNA analysis, and automated

drug discovery (Hwang et al., 2006).

POCEMON (Personal Health Systems for

Monitoring and Point-of-Care Diagnostics) is an

ICT-Large Scale Integrating project that will have

great impact on the methodologies available for both

autoimmune diseases and drug discovery and

consequently impact on the scope and throughput of

new pharmaceutical developments. POCEMON

aims to create a portable diagnostic platform

supplied with advanced software and hardware

technologies for the diagnosis of autoimmune

diseases, coupling fundamental bioinformatics

sciences with technological advances in the fields of

micromachining and micro-fabrication of silicon

chips will lead to a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) for large-

scale diagnosis of autoimmune disorders.

Akhgar B., Rahman F., Jopek L., I. Siddiqi J., Atkinson S., Savoldelli A., Prato D., Montrucchio S., Guella F., James B., Pinkerton M. and Vilmos A. (2009).

CREATING A LOC BASED PORTABLE HEALTH-CARE PLATFORM - Using a Universal Mobile NFC Host Environment

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics, pages 38-42

DOI: 10.5220/0001542300380042

 SciTePress

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology

has gained interest among the business community

and has attracted researchers to overcome

interoperability, infrastructural issues as well as

creating new business cases. At present there is no

common secured communication infrastructure over

which interested parties from diverse domains and

actors can play their role with confidence in terms of

security and trust. To encounter these problems,

‘Store Logistics and Payment with NFC’ (StoLPaN)

is a European project that has defined open

commercial and technical frameworks for NFC-

enabled services on mobile devices and hence

creates a universal environment that will facilitate

the deployment of NFC-enabled mobile applications

across a wide range of vertical markets, regardless of

the mobile device type and the nature of the services

required. The host environment also promotes the

deployment of NFC-enabled mobile applications in

many diverse application domains.

In this paper, we outline the applicability of LOC

and mobile NFC in the diagnosis of health but

particularly focusing on the insights leveraged

through the proposed the universal NFC based host

environment to deploy LOC functionalities and

major innovations of the proposed plan.

2 PORTABLE HEALTH CARE

DIAGNOSTIC PLATFORM

2.1 Identification of the Problem:

Application of Mobile NFC

An NFC device with an internal power supply is

considered active. A device with no internal power

supply, such as a smart card, is considered passive

and. Inductive coupling causes a passive device to

absorb energy from an active device when it gets

close enough. Once powered up, the passive device

can communicate and exchange data with the other

device. The ability of NFC devices to work as both

passive and active enables them to function as either

contact-less cards or readers (Ortiz, 2006; Leong et

al., 2006). Near Field Communication or NFC

technology can be used in various health care

applications as a robust way of gathering, processing

and automating the process of e.g. reminding

patients when it is time to take their prescribed

drugs, based on the prescriptions provided by

pharmacy (http://www.nfcnews.com/articles/2008/

01/28/nfc-competiton-winners-announced).

Moreover, NFC-enabled devices can be used for off-

line monitoring of heart rates, glucose or blood

pressure (http://www.parksassociates.com/

digitalhealth/research/report3.htm). Other application

areas would be in making our environment

friendlier, which applies mainly to disabled persons.

NFC-enabled mobile platforms are rapidly

evolving, getting into our daily activities and are in

general interests of ordinary people. Common

mobile technology used with inexpensive easily

available tags, and soon possibly sensors as well,

makes the functionality widely available.

Networked medical devices will enable to

provide healthcare where constantly gathered and

analyzed information enables to protect patients

continuously with ad hoc decision support system.

Furthermore, NFC-enabled health monitoring and

diagnostic platform will create new opportunities for

the medical health care, but as well for the whole

medical device industry. In addition, some of

treatments will require no more regular doctor visits

and should be achievable by integration of different

NFC-enabled devices.

Besides, health measurements devices can

support self-care (Kaasinen, 2005), which could help

societies to deal with illnesses caused by unhealthy

living. For example, many of health problems might

be related to overweight and in number of cases

implementation of self-motivation system that

stimulates efforts or eating healthy food could

possibly solve, or at least marginalize the problem.

Monitoring and presentation of analyzed data with

goals matching could give feedback that will enable

people to consciously keep fit and healthy.

2.2 Towards a Solution: An NFC Host

Environment

In order to accurately address the interoperability

issues currently affecting the mobile NFC

technology, various usage cases are to be defined

within the StoLPaN framework and tested

throughout Europe. These use cases will contribute

to the identification of a common set of business

rules, which will define the roles and responsibilities

of every player in the NFC ecosystem. The results

will then be submitted for approval to the relevant

industry bodies for standardization of payments,

mobile, transit and ticketing as well LOC

applications.

Based on these findings, the consortium will

look into the specifications for technical

requirements and the security aspects of NFC-

enabled applications. They will also explore the

connection to existing contact-less platforms, easing

CREATING A LOC BASED PORTABLE HEALTH-CARE PLATFORM - Using a Universal Mobile NFC Host

Environment

the burden on individual providers. At the same time

the project team will demonstrate how the business

rules and technical requirements can be

implemented in existing contact-less infrastructures.

A NFC host application will be developed to support

a range of services, including payment, access

control, ticketing, loyalty, connectivity, and the

retail check-out process; which consumers will be

able to use with any NFC-enabled device.

The host environment developed under StoLPaN

project demonstrates a universal mobile J2ME host

application that will provide transparent uniform

operating environment in the mobile handsets for the

selected (and potentially other) NFC applications

neutralizing specifics of the handset design and

taking care of resource management.

The application will on the one hand, hide the

specifics of the various mobile handsets – different

manufacturers, different operational specifics,

different versions, etc – and will on the other hand

provide all the necessary resources and features –

communication access, security solutions, etc.- that

were identified during the technical analyses for the

individual NFC use cases. There will be one generic

version of J2ME host application to be run on any

selected mobile handset models.

Remote deactivation of unsorted multiple smart

tags without interfering with the user functionality,

but at the same time providing adequate security

protection for the smooth user operation as well

have been addresses by StoLPaN initiative.

Specification of a new J2ME host for NFC

business applications handles the basic technology

and also provides a general operating environment

for the various business instruments that may

individually be integrated into the application. The

output of this research will have to be presented for

future standardization, otherwise handset

independence is hard to realize. The same

application would provide the operating

environment for the NFC purse, establish the

necessary connection between the handset’s

resources and the chip. This solution most probably

will be based on the extension of the general NFC

Java API.

Establishment of secure bidirectional

transmission between wireless channels and NFC

chip where the mobile purse can be recharged over

the air it must be ensured that secure communication

can be established between the wireless channels

and the NFC chip. The same functionality and

technology is necessitated for the remote

management of the various NFC applications that

can be stored in the mobile host environment.

Similar is the requirement in case when the mobile

handset acts as payment terminal, where the secure

communication between the chip and the wireless

channels is required into the other direction.

Creating secure NFC chip-to-chip

communication for P2Pby a useful extension may be

the elaboration of the technology that ensures secure

chip-to-chip communication to facilitate direct

purse-to-purse payment. This work does not only

involve technical research, but has an operational

and security aspect as well, as the applied

technology must be supported with adequate

operation and fraud prevention.

2.3 Proposed Platform Combining

POCEMON and StoLPaN

This The POCEMON platform has been aimed to develop

a portable monitoring system for auto immune diseases

such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis

(MS) (http://www.rheumatoid.org.uk/index.php?page_id

=36; http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10031

&page=17).

Health authorities aim to provide patients with

personalised diagnosis and treatments, driven by

state of the art diagnostic and communication

technologies. The system is based on Lab-on-Chip

(LOC) technologies that use microarray genotyping

and microelectronics to carry out diagnostic testing

at the primary healthcare level. The system provides

rapid diagnosis via mobile diagnostic devices and

wireless communications. Basically, it uses LOC

technology to allow rapid DNA analysis from small

quantities of blood/saliva. The chip functions by

increasing the quantity of sample via replication of

the patients' DNA, followed by hybridisation of the

patients' DNA with a microarray of characteristic

autoimmune disease gene templates. The microarray

scanning and recording of genotyping results are

controlled through the PDA via a multipurpose LOC

adapter.

Figure 1: POCEMON Operation.

HEALTHINF 2009 - International Conference on Health Informatics

The genotyping data generated by the LOC are

assessed using intelligent algorithms linked with the

laboratory information system to provide detailed

diagnosis and medical treatment advice. This

process functions through the LOC's integration with

mobile devices and communication with the

laboratory information system via wireless

communications.

Recent research efforts suggest the high-

potential of NFC technology for short-range

connectivity between health monitoring devices and

mobile terminals and data stores propose practices to

apply NFC to some health monitoring applications

and study the benefits that are attainable with NFC.

The value of these is significant, especially in long-

term diagnostic analysis and in chronic disease

management. From the usability point of view,

wireless communication links are preferable to

cables because they facilitate measurements and

management of diagnostic analysis at real-life

settings (Strommer et al., 2006).

The StoLPaN host application (Benyo et al.,

2007) allows the collaboration among the diverse

applications, diverse service providers, diverse

network operators and the diverse of type of mobile

devices.

Figure 2: StoLPaN Host Environment.

The host is able to support multiple NFC

services, provide access to the phone's resources and

facilitates the loading, use, maintenance and deletion

of third party NFC enabled applications via common

API between the third party application and the

mobile device's, common API between the service

provider and the third party's application

provisioning Platform, simplifying validation of

adherence to their service level agreements. Besides

a common User Interface for applications loaded

into the Secure Element or the host's JAVA storage,

providing value added features to existing contact-

less services. It will simplify the learning curve

associated with any new application.

3 INNOVATIONS OF THE

PROPOSED APPROACH

Major POCEMON objectives directly arises by the

integration of multi-technology sets that underlie

new functionalities, services and applications

sufficient enough to provide portable and mobile

ICT systems which facilitate point-of-care diagnosis

at the primary care level. Also, new diagnostic

software will be developed for PDA/Mobile devices

making this technology more attractive to primary

care and allowing future mobile devices to be used

for health monitoring, even at home (connected any

time, anywhere and to many services). The

development of the diagnostic Lab-on-Chip device

will lead to innovative technological achievements

which will strength European microelectronics

industry offering smaller systems, cheaper, smarter

and friendlier.

The main part for the point-of-care diagnosis of

autoimmune diseases is based on the development of

the appropriate software capable to perform

automated micro-array analysis to measure the genes

expression. The software will be implemented for

desktop workstations and for PDAs.

Image processing is an important part of every

micro-array experiment. Reliability of this part

strongly influences the results of data analysis

performed on extracted gene expressions. The image

analysis functions will use the filenames and the red

and green channels of the spotted images. The main

image analysis software will be developed using

Contrast enhancement, Sub-array extraction,

Dilation and erosion, Extraction of individual spots,

and Information extraction.

Also, communication software will be developed

both for information exchange and data transmission

between the PDA/Mobile Device and LOC as well

PDA/Mobile Device and the desktop station

(Laboratry Information Server - LIS) which will be

accommodated in a laboratory of a large medical

centre. The communication will be mainly wireless

(except for large-distance primary care diagnostic

point-of-care places) using the well established

internet communications protocols and the data will

be transmitted securely in a private network.

All these procedures will be developed as

standalone software that will interact with the LOC

from the PDA/mobile device. The detailed version

CREATING A LOC BASED PORTABLE HEALTH-CARE PLATFORM - Using a Universal Mobile NFC Host

Environment

of the automatic micro-array image analysis

software and the diagnosis extraction mechanisms

will be hosted on the LIS. Also the desktop station

software will be capable to provide treatment

advices for autoimmune diseases and the knowledge

will be extracted by combining all the stored gene

data. In order to allow new diagnostic tests to be

performed and new decision rules to be applied the

PDA software and the cards will be able to change.

4 CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, the NFC host environment provides a

seamless interface for analyzing LOC data, without

requiring any detail handling of hardware/software

interface issue. As a result the thorough research

carried out under POCEMON will be facilitated

from StoLPaN environment that will provide the

delivery of mobile information services in the

professional primary care environment, and to

present solutions for providing decision support

information on small, portable or wearable

platforms. The main objective of providing mobile

devices packaged with relevant high-quality

software tools for health-practitioners in the near

future will accelerate the establishment of

interoperability standards and secure communication

of health diagnostic data between all involved

partners of the project, including patients.

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HEALTHINF 2009 - International Conference on Health Informatics