Ubiquitous M-Health Systems and the Convergence Towards 4G Mobile Technologies

The increased availability, miniaturization, performance and enhanced data rates of future mobile communication systems will have an increasing impact and accelerate the deployment of m-health systems and services within the next decade. M-Health can be defined as ‘emerging mobile communications and network technologies for healthcare.’ This emerging concept represents the evolution of e-health systems from traditional desktop ‘telemedicine’ platforms to wireless and mobile configurations. The expected convergence of future wireless communication, wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous computing technologies will enable the proliferation of such technologies around healthcare services with both cost-effective, flexible and efficient ways. These advances will have a powerful impact on some of the existing healthcare services and will reshape some of the mechanisms of existing healthcare delivery routes.