Management of Medical Equipment

Managing medical equipment in health centers is crucial, especially in emergency departments. However, due to the dynamic nature of these environments, the equipment may be unavailable for various reasons in different situations. Existing management tools rely on manual interventions, which increases the workload of the health professionals involved and does not track the continuous use of the equipment. This research proposes a generic solution approach to manage the location and use of medical equipment while minimizing manual interactions. A meta-model was developed to enable the creation of specialized IoT applications tailored to the specific needs of different types of health centers. The research began with a literature investigation on fundamental themes, followed by the meta-model conception, which evolved iteratively. Interviews with health professionals allowed the integration of information about the medical context. The feasibility of the meta-model was tested by two IoT software systems applied in experimental studies simulating simple hospitals. The main contribution of this work is the creation of an efficient meta-model to develop IoT applications suitable for medical equipment management, with a potential for continuous improvement for various health centers.

PhD Thesis​​​​​​​

PhD publications: