Page 69 - ITU KALEIDOSCOPE, ATLANTA 2019

FACILITATING HEALTHCARE IOT STANDARDIZATION WITH OPEN SOURCE:
A CASE STUDY ON OCF AND IOTIVITY

1
1
Hongki Cha , Younghwan Choi and Kangchan Lee
1
1 Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
{cha8476, yhc, chan}@etri.re.kr

ABSTRACT patients’ health conditions and respond to immediate
medical conditions more proactively and predict conditions
Healthcare Internet of things (IoT) opens up seamless based on the data collected from IoT devices. Hospitals can
opportunities by unleashing possibilities to implement better keep track of medical devices embedded with geolocation
healthcare services. Increased interest in this led to active sensors such as wheelchairs and oxygen pumps to better
standardization in various standards development locate patients.
organizations (SDOs). However, the proliferation of
different international healthcare standards has not brought Taking into account that healthcare IoT has the potential to
about full deployment of healthcare IoT services and change people’s lives and can deliver a significant impact on
business opportunities in the healthcare domain. the medical domain, an increased interest in this has led to
Nevertheless, there have been some efforts to take advantage active standardization in various standards development
of open-source projects as an enabler to facilitate better organizations (SDOs). The Open Connectivity Foundation
deployment of healthcare IoT standards. In this paper, the (OCF) defined several healthcare devices which can
authors develop a case study of their efforts to standardize interoperate with other OCF smart home devices in the OCF
healthcare IoT with IoTivity, with the Open Connectivity ecosystem. IEEE specified the base architecture and device
Foundation (OCF). Then they discuss the benefits of IoTivity specializations for healthcare and medical devices, which
and how it has led to the enhancement of standardization were reflected in Continua guidelines of Personal Connected
efficiency and acceleration in healthcare IoT. The authors Health Alliance (PCHA). Health Level 7 International (HL7)
conclude by recommending ITU-T to continue their efforts to provides a common data model framework named Fast
seek the roles of open-source implementation for faster Health Interoperable Resources (FHIR). IEC/TC 62 defines
adoption of not only healthcare IoT standards but also their international standards for healthcare electrical systems and
overall Recommendations. software.

Keywords – healthcare, IoT, IoTivity, OCF, open source, However, the proliferation of different international
standardization healthcare standards has not brought about a wide
deployment of healthcare IoT services and business
1. INTRODUCTION opportunities. The fragmentation of standards hindered the
access and usage of developed standards because
Digital health, an integral part of the "Fourth Industrial implementing such standards did not always guarantee
Revolution", revolutionizes the medical and healthcare interconnectivity and compatibility between services and
domain, and in turn, helps us overcome the technical and devices. In addition, it was difficult to assure that such
socio-economic challenges we face around health. Leaping healthcare devices can interoperate with other devices from
to the next level of connected healthcare services is only different silos. Such concerns eventually isolated healthcare
possible when taking advantage of the Internet of things devices to communicate with other devices from other
(IoT), 5G and other emerging technologies. Such a globally domains.
connected healthcare ecosystem facilitates remote medical
services which act as a bridge between medical practitioners Nevertheless, there have been some efforts in taking
and people who are especially in need. advantage of open-source projects as an enabler to better
deploy healthcare IoT standards. Most recent and remarkable
Healthcare IoT opens up seamless opportunities by efforts include the standardization activities in the Open
unleashing possibilities to better implement healthcare Connectivity Foundation (OCF). The OCF sponsors an
services to patients, physicians and hospitals. Patients with open-source project to provide reference implementations of
wirelessly connected devices can seamlessly track their the OCF specifications. IoTivity, an open-source project of
health conditions and request emergency assistance from the Linux Foundation, is sponsored by the OCF and aims to
physicians and hospitals. Physicians can track or monitor bring the open-source community together to accelerate the

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