Evaluating Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)-Based Systems from a Human-Centric Perspective

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT)-based systems are rapidly evolving, offering promising technological, financial and social prospects in multiple domains, including healthcare. Medical systems, integrated with IoT features, can support healthcare activities, such as the remote monitoring of patients, the real-time diagnosis of medical issues, etc., improving the quality of the provided services, and enhancing the associated human users' satisfaction. These systems fall within the context of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). However, concerns, stemming from the human users, must be considered during the design of such systems, since they are transformed into criticalities, that restrict system functionality. In this work, stepping on a human-centric perspective of designing IoMT systems, we analyze the human concerns, associated to the systems' usage, and the criticalities, that are extracted from these concerns. In addition, we identify specific criticality types, classifying the criticalities into them. Focus is given on the Remote Elderly Monitoring System (REMS) and the Smart Ambulance System (SAS) use cases, that belong to the healthcare domain, combining IoMT technologies with classic healthcare practices. Based on these systems, we explore and validate the applicability of the human-centric perspective, and examine whether concerns and criticality types are addressed. This results in the identification of ways to further improve such systems, and consequently, in greater satisfaction, and acceptance from the end-users. 2019 Elsevier B.V.