Recent Advances in mHealth: An Update to Personal Health Device Interoperability Based on ISO/IEEE11073

In recent years important advances have been made in the development of health care systems in specific areas owing to different uses and applications. One of the foremost advancements is the so-called mobile Health (mHealth), due to its potential social and economic impact. Within this scope, several technologies – such as smart phones and ultra-slim tablet-PCs, as well as low-voltage and low-power wireless sensor networks – provide telemonitoring services at home and ubiquitous support when they are strongly integrated. Therefore, the integration of international interoperability standards is, nevertheless, required for a regulated transmission of health information in mHealth scenarios. However, such implementation tends to increase the processing load and battery size in order to ensure its autonomy. To tackle this problem, different strategies are being tested in this set of mobile technologies which are aimed at providing a solution to such critical aspects. Another important aspect that should be addressed is the management of communication between different parts that constitutes the system. The new communication capabilities of smart phones enable the implementation of new techniques that improve data transmission from the mobile system to the telemonitoring center, facilitating the integration of Personal Health Devices (PHDs) with telemonitoring systems. This makes the system more accessible to the user.