Array (Mar 2022)
A prospective interoperable distributed e-Health system with loose coupling in improving healthcare services for developing countries
Abstract
A loosely coupled distributed system enables interoperability in healthcare structures and can be used to create flexible architecture. The key limitation in adopting electronic health (e-Health) services in developing countries is the health data interoperability problem. Most developing countries are being confronted with the utilization of e-Health systems for their health care services. This study aims to develop a prospective e-Health system for developing countries to improve the effectiveness of health care services. This paper presents an enhanced e-Health framework using distributed memory and heterogeneous data handling mechanisms with loose coupling. The distributed e-Health has been designed using e-Health standards that are compatible with health level 7 (HL7) and can facilitate interoperability among health information systems. The Message Passing Interface (MPI) has been implemented to store regular backups of heterogeneous health data. The HL7 standards can also handle security threats. Data interchange from one e-Health system server to another has been conducted based on the experimental results. The distributed database has been made accessible from a remote server by using loosely coupled technology. It also provided the e-Health data recovery features and handled an extensive database through a distributed environment. According to the study, the developed system can deliver a low-cost service to the intended developing-country community effectively.
