Page 446 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

 Connected health care

Health care delivery can benefit from a connected approach, with electronic patient records
available to all medical services. This will enable public health professionals and clinicians to
collaboratively access information in a secure way, at any time, from anywhere and from any mobile
device.

In many cases, telemedicine solutions connected through broadband, wireless or satellite, can prove
vital in situations where the infrastructure or specific contingencies do not allow for the physical
presence of a specialist, in cases such as natural disasters or remote geographical locations.
An ageing population needs traditional care, as well as assisted living and health monitoring services
to enable independence at home. This can be achieved through the utilization of sensors and
devices connected to health operators through broadband, wireless and data analytics, and
crucially, the deployment of privacy, identification and security systems.

In the case of a road accident, a malicious intrusion that compromises communication between first
respondents and operational centers could prevent its accurate localization and the efficient
dispatch of emergency units. Equally, during such incidents, emergency services might need to
operate using medical data for injured patients by accessing a central location, and they should
operate on the basis of reliability and integrity of the information.

Recommendations
 In this context, back‐up, cybersecurity and authentication solutions can ensure that health
care systems offer reliability and integrity, as well as patient privacy.

 Public safety and security
Above all, cities need to be safe. Public safety and security has become paramount for city
administrations, whether protecting them against crime, natural disasters, accidents or terrorism.

From conventional street violence to complex financial offences, identity thefts or data breaches,
the crime scenario is extremely dynamic and can only be tackled by increasingly sophisticated
technologies and processes.

Telesurveillance systems are becoming pervasive in urban settings and, coupled with real‐time
communication capabilities, can help emergency services intervene promptly in incidents.
In the immediate aftermath of a serious accident or catastrophic event, reliability and security
become key factors. The ability to share information between agencies, to operate sophisticated
telesurveillance systems, to guarantee connectivity to incident response teams and first responders,
to gather and analyse heterogeneous intelligence and data about incidents in real time, allow
municipalities and emergency services to increase safety conditions for citizens, businesses, assets
and infrastructure.

436 ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications