ITU-T’s activities on e-health
5 February 2013
Hiroshi Ota
ITU, Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau
e-Health is a priority
New WTSA-12 Resolution 78 on ICT applications
and standards for improved access to e-health
services (Dubai, Nov. 2012) calls for a concerted
effort in ITU-T towards e-health standardization
in coordination with WHO and SDOs working in
this domain, as well as promotion of e-health in
the regions.
It instructs TSB Director to give a priority to
expanding the scope of telecommunication/ICT
initiatives in healthcare and to coordinate
activities related to e-health among study
groups, focus groups and other relevant groups.
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Side event at WTSA-12
Took place on 21 November 2012
Featured e-health experts showcasing
different areas of e-health applications.
The discussion also focused on the next
steps to be taken in standardization to
realize the benefits of e-health
Presentations were given from standards,
regional and industry perspectives
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e-Health related activities - summary
ITU-T Focus Group on M2M Service Layer was established to
develop technical reports to support the progress on M2M APIs
and protocols. E-health is one of the study cases to be
investigated.
ITU-T Study Group 13 (Q2/13) is progressing to draft new
"Requirements and network capabilities for e-health monitoring
services", to classify the e-Health monitoring services, to describe
requirements for supporting e-Health monitoring services, and to
specify corresponding network capabilities.
ITU-T Study Group 16 (Q28/16) is working in transposing
Continua Health Alliance Guidelines into an ITU-T
Recommendation as well as in developing a new Recommendation
on e-health data exchange services. Approval of both standards is
expected before 1st quarter 2014.
ITU-T Study Group 17 (Q9/17) completed work on ITU-T X.1080.1
(E-Health and world-wide telemedicine - Generic
telecommunication protocol), to provide wide-area
communication, where communication can be usefully
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undertaken as structured messages.
Focus Group on M2M Service Layer (1)
Established in January 2012
The Focus Group on the M2M service layer (FG
M2M) will study activities currently undertaken by
various standards developing organizations
(SDOs) in the field of M2M service layer
specifications to identify key requirements for a
common M2M service layer.
FG M2M will identify a minimum set of common
requirements of vertical markets, focusing
initially on the health-care market and application
programming interfaces (APIs) and protocols
supporting e-health applications and services,
and draft technical reports in these areas.
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Focus Group on M2M Service Layer (2)
Had five meetings so far:
#5:
#4:
#3:
#2:
#1:
21-24
13-15
29-31
26-28
17-18
January 2013, Santander, Spain
November 2012, San Jose, United States
August 2012, Geneva, Switzerland
June 2012, Beijing, China
April 2012, Geneva, Switzerland
Developing five deliverables:
M2M standardization activities and gap analysis: e-health
M2M enabled ecosystems: e-health
M2M use cases: e-health
M2M service layer: requirements and architectural
framework
M2M service layer:API and protocol
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Q2/13: Requirements for NGN evolution (NGN-e)
and its capabilities including support of IoT (1)
The Question addresses the support of emerging
services and applications in NGN and its
evolution. On the basis of use cases and related
ecosystem aspects, the requirements and
capabilities imposed on networks (including user
networks) will be specified.
Emerging services and applications to be
considered include Internet of Things (IoT)
services and applications in different vertical
market areas (key identified market areas include
e-health, etc.)
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Q2/13: Requirements for NGN evolution (NGN-e)
and its capabilities including support of IoT (2)
E-health related work item under study:
Y.EHM-Reqts: Requirements and network capabilities for
E-health monitoring services
IoT Related Recommendations:
Y.2060 (06/2012): Overview of the Internet of things
Y.2061 (06/2012): Requirements for the support of
machine-oriented communication applications in the
next generation network environment
Y.2213 (09/2008): NGN service requirements and
capabilities for network aspects of applications and
services using tag-based identification
Y.2221 (01/2010): Requirements for support of
ubiquitous sensor network (USN) applications and
services in the NGN environment
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Q28/16: Multimedia framework for
e-health applications (1)
Focuses on standardization of
multimedia systems to support ehealth applications
Coordinates the technical
standardization of multimedia
systems and capabilities for e-health
applications in ITU T, and will
develop corresponding
Recommendations
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Q28/16: Multimedia framework for
e-health applications (2)
Work items under study:
H.MEDX: Multimedia e-health data exchange
services: Architecture, services and data
dictionary
H.IDGPHS: Interoperability design guidelines
for personal health systems (equivalent to the
Continua Health Alliance guideline
specifications)
F.ehmmf: Multimedia Framework for e-health
applications
HSTP.EHMSI: Technical Paper: Multimedia
service and interfaces for e-health
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Q9/17: Telebiometrics (1)
This Question studies and develops:
security requirements and guidelines for any application of
telebiometrics
requirements for evaluating security, conformance and
interoperability with privacy protection techniques
requirements for telebiometric applications in a high
functionality network.
integrated frameworks and requirements of telebiometric
architectures for cloud computing services.
requirements of telebiometric authentication for trust identity
framework.
requirements for appropriate generic protocols providing
safety, security, privacy protection, and consent “for
manipulating biometric data” in any application of
telebiometrics, e.g., e-health, tele-medicine, e-commerce,
online-banking, video surveillance.
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Q9/17: Telebiometrics (2)
Related Recommendations:
X.1080.1: e-Health and world-wide telemedicines - Generic
telecommunication protocol
X.1081: The telebiometric multimodal model – A framework for the
specification of security and safety aspects of telebiometrics
X.1082: Telebiometrics related to human physiology
X.1083: Information technology – Biometrics – BioAPI interworking
protocol
X.1084: Telebiometrics system mechanism – Part 1: General biometric
authentication protocol and system model profiles for
telecommunications systems
X.1086: Telebiometrics protection procedures - A guideline to technical
and managerial countermeasures for biometric data security
X.1088: Telebiometrics digital key framework (TDK) – A framework for
biometric digital key generation and protection
X.1089: Telebiometrics authentication infrastructure (TAI)
X.1090: Authentication framework with one-time telebiometric
templates
X.1091: A guideline for evaluating telebiometric template protection
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techniques
Q9/17: Telebiometrics (3)
Work items under study:
X.bhsm: Telebiometric authentication framework using
biometric hardware security module
X.tam: A guideline to technical and operational
countermeasures for telebiometric applications using
mobile devices
X.th2: Telebiometrics related to physics
X.th3: Telebiometrics related to chemistry
X.th4: Telebiometrics related to biology
X.th5: Telebiometrics related to culturology
X.th6: Telebiometrics related to psychology
X.tif: Integrated framework for telebiometric data
protection in e-health and worldwide telemedicines
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Tech Watch Report: Standards and e-Health
• ITU’s Standardization Sector has released
a Technology Watch Report that looks
to the future of e-health.
• The report observes that e-health
development will require more universal ehealth interoperability standards, and
strategies to overcome technical
infrastructure barriers and address
privacy, security, and other legal
requirements.
•
The report is available:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITUT/techwatch/Pages/ehealth-standards.aspx
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Tech Watch Report: e-Health Standards and Interoperability
 Rapid advancements in development
of e-health standards must accompany
three trends :
 Advancements in healthcare
delivery via mobile and wireless ehealth technologies;
 Personalized medicine, including
personal health records, medical
diagnostic devices, and biometric
records; and
 Interactive healthcare via social
media and Web 2.0 applications.
 Institutions developing standards in e-health CEN/TC 251,
DICOM, HL7, ISO/TC 215, ISO/IEEE 11073 and, in particular,
the work ITU-T
http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/23/01/T23010000170001PDFE.pdf
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Thank you!
hiroshi.ota@itu.int
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