Integrating IEEE 11073 and constrained application protocol for personal health devices

Nowadays, new challenges are presenting new opportunities for healthcare services in the Internet. The increasing availability of connected Personal Health Devices (PHDs) enables a new type of information to be available in the Internet: health information. However, most of these devices use proprietary protocols, creating vertical solutions where one device just talks to one service. In this context, this paper presents a proposal for the use of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) for PHDs communication, using IEEE 11073 as base health protocol. It is discussed how to carry IEEE 11073 information over CoAP messages and, at the end, evaluation results are presented in comparison with other transport mechanisms.