Collaborative Health-Care System (Cohesy) Model

Recent trends in health-care support systems are focused on developing patient-centric pervasive environments and the use of mobile devices and technologies in medical monitoring and health-care systems (Ballegaard et al. 2008). This is of particular importance for patients with chronic diseases who require 24 h medical care. The COllaborative HEalth-care SYstem (COHESY) model, presented in this chapter, allows monitoring of users’ health parameters and their physical activities. The proposed model uses a social network that allows communication between users with the same or similar conditions and exchange of their experiences. This model creates an opportunity for increasing users’ health care within their homes—24 h medical monitoring on one hand and increased capacity of health institutions on the other hand—resulting in reduction of overall costs for consumers and health-care institutions (Zimmerman and Chang 2008). The proposed model helps its users to actively participate in their health care and prevention, thereby providing an active life in accordance with their daily responsibilities at work and with family and friends.