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DOI: 10.33414/ME9136
On Health-enabling and Ambient-assistive Technologies
What Has Been Achieved and Where Do We Have to Go?[*]Publication History
Publication Date:
24 January 2018 (online)
![](https://www.thieme-connect.de/media/10.1055-s-00035037/200901/lookinside/thumbnails/10-33414-me9136-1.jpg)
Summary
Objectives: To provide an introductory overview on selected areas of health-enabling and ambient-assistive technologies and to suggest relevant fields for future research.
Methods: Summarizing the state of the art for 1) ambient environments and 2) health- related sensor technologies, 3) presenting relevant medical conditions and their relation to health-enabling technologies, and 4) illustrating the application of those technologies for lifestyle management with examples for activity monitoring and prevention of over-weight. The suggestions for future research are based on own research projects in this field.
Results: Health-enabling and ambient-assistive technologies are regarded to have the potential to significantly improve quality of life and efficiency of health care in aging societies. Research on health-enabling and ambient-assistive technologies is highly multidisciplinary.
Conclusions: It still has, to a large extent, to be exploratory. An increasing amount of outcomes research through well-designed evaluation studies that explore technical solutions in a social context and in relation to individual needs will be crucial.
Keywords
Medical informatics - integrated advanced information management systems - information storage and retrieval - home care services - nursing record* The motivation to write this manuscript were two invited talks, the authors had given on this topic at the Symposium ‘Perspectives of Medical Informatics’ at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. This symposium has been organized on April 5, 2008, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Medical Informatics Program of the Universities of Heidelberg and Heilbronn.
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