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CSE 542 Software Engineering Concepts

eRely Asthma Control System Specifications

Sireesha Chilakamarri Page 1 4/10/2023


Table of ContentsProblem Statement...............................................................................................................3Objectives of the project......................................................................................................4Survey of Technology in Asthma Health Control...............................................................5Proposal...............................................................................................................................7System Functionality requirements.....................................................................................8User Profile........................................................................................................................10External and Internal Interferences....................................................................................11Performance.......................................................................................................................12Attributes...........................................................................................................................13Constraints.........................................................................................................................14Project Deliverables...........................................................................................................15Future Scope......................................................................................................................16References..........................................................................................................................17



Problem Statement

Asthma affects over 15% of teenagers every year that can increase their risks of maturing the ailment if uncontrolled, especially at its early stages. eRely offers to provide a very quick and a convenient control system through mobile handsets that intelligently responds to the teenagers’ asthma symptoms and intuitively helps them regulate their health conditions. It should service through the mobile systems like cellular phones that not only offer portability, but also a reliable service to the patients through their real time medical record interactions.

This document discusses about the survey of various health monitoring systems that had similar objectives of a mobile asthma control system, user profile, functionality, a proposed solution, external and internal interfaces, performance aspects, project deliverables and future scope for enhanced performance.



Objectives of the project

The following are objectives for the project that aim at meeting the goal of helping teenagers suffering from Asthma to seek a reliable and quick response through an interactive control system that intelligently keeps track of their medicine consumption and responds to the appropriate symptoms.

Reliable medical service with an integrated asthma action planAs a tendency to depend on the mobile application increases with the technology advancements, so is the level of trust in its service. As a consequence, a standard platform of providing the safest solution to the specific symptoms for the patient is necessary.

Tailored for the patient: personalized eRely serviceWith a particular medical record defined for the patient, the response to the actual symptoms must be intuitive.

Fastest response for immediate medical careMobile applications responses from the server are usually prioritized over other background ones, when several applications run on the client. Though, this assures to a defined response time, the service must intent at fastest possible mode.

Automatic update to record the daily and weekly progress of symptoms and reactions

Maintenance of every input of the user is imperative for the weekly and daily progress observation for the doctor and patient.

Easy portability as a cell phone widgetThe user must be able to use the mobile device for on-the-go service.

An all-in-one package for asthma control tracking and management



Survey of Technology in Asthma Health Control

Health care always required a human supervision well before the Internet and Telecommunications have evolved. Initially automatons were invented to conduct mechanical activities like mining into deep ocean beds or soil on earth’s hard surface and later deployed to perform surgeries on human beings remotely controlled by a surgeon. There are certain applications that could not be automated, such as fruit picking or garbage collectors. Such motivating and sophisticated inventions have rather simplified several remote controlled systems through mobile and cellular applications that are only a click away to load on a cellular phone and employ it on the go.

As we increase our dependence on mobile technology that offers to be our digital assistants, there were some inventions that strived to assist people suffering with asthma. Asthma patients typically record their health conditions twice a day on an action plan reacting to their symptoms and maintain a peak flow result report that helps their doctor track the patient’s health behavior.

From [1], the service attempts to survey for about a year with asthma patients to observe if mobile technology can serve as an absolute medical relief to the patients in times of their immediate need. Their technology proposes a mobile phone that is equipped with the Oxygen and fitted with a peak flow meter. When the patient breathes into the mobile, there is a automatic record of the condition. The recorded information is automatically transmitted to the computer base station that tracks the results against expected performance. A response is communicated back to the patient regarding what action needs to be taken to control the asthma symptom. Although this technology seems to exploit a handheld mobile phone as a fitted flow meter and inhaler, it is technologically challenging to manufacture/maintain the instrument albeit its ease to use. Its physical design becomes crucial to those who demand for a portable device that is easy to use and also is quick in response to the symptoms. The service also requires the increased dependency on doctors on less critical situations.

From [2], there has been a proposal of using mobile phones in peak flow monitoring as a self management for asthma. The most positive claimed features of the telemedicine system were described as increased awareness and information about asthma, improved ability to monitor/manage the condition with the feedback screens on the mobile phone and ease of use. There are certain aspects that may not account for the patient’s heath. The proposal was under assumptions that the



patient had no exacerbation in the previous three months, with no remedial interference. This solution may prove helpful to patients who have stabilized their health over a long period of suffering but will tend to risk lives of less experienced patients relying on its technology.

From [3], the electronic self monitoring of the asthma using mobile technology with free text messaging feature. There were numerous benefits with free text messages and instant treatment. The doctors and patients however incur time and cost implications with such a service, though it is noble. The low completion rate expressed the status of mobile phone facilitated care as a least interest of early adopters. Even for the enthusiastic patients, using mobile phone technology doubted the clinical benefit, its impact on self-management, additional workload and cost aspects.

From [4], the main barrier addressed was to empower the patient and simplify their power through technology. The aim to engage the patient in the treatment procedure improves adherence to medical regimen. As a result, quality of life is increased of the patient is improved, inappropriate hospital visits are reduced, office visits are reduced and costs are cut down. The mobile phone is used to provide with a service that accounts for a high payment per usage basis that discourages its patients to deploy its service.

The asthma control system should reach beyond the patient’s expectations and serve amicably at faster, more reliable and at reasonable costs compared to the existing service models. The most important inventions described above, target at mature patients who are majors and senior by age. Asthma is increasingly affecting a patient since early childhood age and may prove to be hazardous for health if not taken care of during the growing period of the child. It may lead to serious breathing ailments that may not be cured after a particular stage, exacting for invention of a control system for children, especially teenagers who can rely on a system that is easy to use, portable and quick in response to their asthma symptoms. With teenagers highly dependent on mobile technologies for their multitude of applications ranging from directing in driving to entertainment to increase the cell phone functionality from simple telephone and text, it is consensus that cell phones are definitely a huge part of a comfort in their lives. Exploiting this particular interest, a proposal for a cost effective application that is downloadable and multimedia oriented will attract the younger population.

The proposal follows below as a consequence of the survey.



Proposal

Mobile applications are the most attractive and latest in the telecommunication domain. eRely proudly hosts several mobile applications. We propose an asthma health control system that inherits the mobile technology features of portability, feasibility, personality, and flexibility. Our service is a enabler to provide end-users’ added values, including anytime, anywhere access, ability to respond to the patient’s symptoms and intelligently track their medical record with high security and confidentiality. The application will experience high priority over other ones in the mobile to react to incoming messages given by the server and outgoing messages from the patient to the server or the emergency contact. Besides utilizing the fundamental text messaging system of the mobile, the graphical user interface will help in a easier and more accurate responsive service. An effective database maintained at the server will keep the patient’s records safe to lookup the action plans easily and respond quickly. An inventory record is tracked to automatically update the medical requirements. Catering to several options and packages to set automatic reminders, enable multi-user environment and print out the asthma conditions at very nominal costs are the other helpful features.

The following sections discuss about the system functionality, objectives, external and internal users, performance and system constraints.

System Functionality requirements



The following are identified as the application minimum requirements:

User registration User’s medical record and medication records in database. Specific Action plan upload. Peak flow meter accounted accurate.

These functionalities are a definite system design dependencies. The minimum user domain requirements are as follows:

The cellular phone must have the ability to send and receive text messages. Memory reservation must meet the application’s requirements User registration with the respective doctor’s supervision and permission. User understanding of the requests and responses for the symptoms. The cellular phone may have an ability to entertain multimedia features for

enhanced features of the asthma control system.

Besides the above, the following are required to avoid inconsistencies in providing a reliable service:

User login authentication in few steps. User secure login until logged out Application fast response with minimum delay. Application reaction to the external events like the phone calls and

messages. Application reaction to the internal events like the phone shut down or

program crashes. Ability to expand on enhanced features on eRely.

Once the control system is invoked with the symptoms of the patient, there is an immediate communication with the server that builds a stable link between the user and the user’s medical records. The Action plan is looked up for response and acknowledgement from the patient is tracked for health monitoring. The inventory is checked at regular intervals for an automatic refill. Every medication is recorded and updated for health progress report.



If red: If < = Green


Welcome to eRely

What are your symptoms?

CoughPantsChest pain

Cough level

Texting/ Emailing/ Dailing

your emergency contacts…..

Take n ounces of xxx.


User Profile

The following is a description of the people who will use the asthma control system. Client or the mobile user: The user is the teenage asthma patient who needs a portable control plan allows the following: a) Be able to input the symptoms b) Get the response from the server c) Able to retrieve the daily or medical reports in different graphical forms. Though the project targets a teenager, the patient can be a senior. The user is the main person of the project forming the important position in the problem space.

Certified Doctors:A medical practitioner who takes care of the patient also uses the system to administer the patient’s behavior. They are significantly less than the client. They interact with the system in to monitor to the patient’s symptoms and reactions to the doses.

Emergency contacts/family member: For teenagers who have disability and need assistance with the application, these users will use the system for checking medications and patient past asthma conditions. They are secondary users to the system. Database Administrator: These people administer the medical database to maintain the user’s records, profile updates, track of queries and manage the accounts. This is crucial part of the software space as any incorrect response can risk the health of the client.



External and Internal Interferences

The control system interacts with several events that occur externally and internally, without logging the user out of the application. Some of them and the appropriate system reactions are given below:

A few external interferences:

Phone call interruption : the system should be interrupted with a phone call that comes from emergency contacts or the doctor or the medical center

Text message that interrupts to give medication advice.

A few internal interferences:

An alarm or reminder to refill the medicine Internal application shutdown because of mobile crashes.

Given the above events, the teenagers who are the intended users need to interact with the required doctors in case of emergency. This implies that the product also has the doctors and possibly nurses with the patient’s emergency contacts using this application for special needs. The system being incorporated within the mobile does not require any additional tools unlike other mobile applications discussed under the survey section. In case multiple applications run simultaneously, the eRely application must get highest priority in communicating with the base server.



Performance

The system should be highly stable in maintaining constant interaction with the client-server and stabilize with the feedback information. The application should be available at all times of the day and night with a reasonable usage account - evaluation and paid. The recovery time between the various functionalities as discussed before should be low to wait for patient’s requests and to provide immediate response.



Attributes

The system provides the following features:

Reliable medical service with an integrated asthma action plan Tailored for the patient: personalized eRely Fastest response for immediate medical care Automatic update to record the daily and weekly progress of symptoms and

reactions Easy portability as a cell phone widget An all-in-one package for asthma control tracking and management Simple and a effective interaction with pictures and text version of the

symptoms Built-in templates of Text message templates for a quick compose Medicine inventory stock maintenance according to the prescription and

automatic order from the pharmacy Health performance curves and other graphical representations Set reminders for a regular dose consumption Multi-user platform with a secure login Confidentiality of medical records Visually impaired compliance through vibration and Voice activated

responses Automatic alert messages and emergency contact Automatic settings to share the medical record with the doctor



Constraints

The resources that will be required for the system will be limited and targeted for specific age group. As a result, the design of the system must cater to the latest technology trends and at the same time be affordable by the user.

The system attempts to meet all the requirements with certain issues that will be a work in progress:

Limitations of mobile devices. Being much smaller, mobile devices have small screen and complicated input mechanism, and are considered to be more difficult to use than personal computers. The low display resolution and small display screen have inhibited information to be displayed completely and clearly. The limited battery life has restricted the mobility of end-users.

Mobile service quality. The technical restrictions have posed a challenge for the wide diffusion of mobile applications. Low bandwidth, unstable connection, and limited coverage area are the main drawbacks of current mobile technology and services. Although with the advancement of mobile technology, these problems would be alleviated or resolved in the near future, more research needs to be conducted at the current stage.

Security options. Security is a major concern for mobile applications. Wireless transmission, in a way, biases end-users to perceive mobile applications to be more vulnerable and unsecured. Thus, more security enhancements and options must be provided to ensure the security of data and business transactions.



Project Deliverables

The project will deliver the following:

The mobile instrument – a cell phoneThe cell phone that is equipped with Android mobile application. It is to be provided with all the cell phone accessories like the phone charger, adapter and a sim card for the subscriber for the network.

Software installationsA software CD that comprises of required files that can help the client save the medical information and provision for email and print. User ManualA hard copy of the user guide gives information on the mobile application usage.



Future Scope

The project should blend into providing enhanced versions in near future:

o Set reminders for a regular dose consumptiono Multi-user platform with a secure logino Visually impaired compliance through vibration and Voice activated

responseso Automatic alert messages and emergency contacts o Automatic settings to share the medical record with other chosen accounts



References

[1] What a mobile can do – Breathing easy, www.mmo2.com/cr/report2003/whatmobile[2] D Ryan, W Cobern, J Wheeler, D Price and L Tarassenko, Mobile phone technology in the management of asthma, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare[3] Professional and patient attitudes to using mobile phone technology to monitor asthma: questionnaire survey, Division of Community Health Sciences: GP Section, University of Edinburgh, 20 West Richmond St, Edinburgh EH8 9DX, UK. [email protected][4] DISEASE MANAGEMENT DELIVERED BY CELLPHONE, BeWell Mobile Technology.


http://www.mmo2.com/cr/report2003/whatmobile

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