Lessons learned from the implementation of remote control for the interoperability standard ISO/IEEE11073-20601 in a standard weighing scale

Héctor Gilberto Barrón-González; Miguel Martínez-Espronceda; Jesús Daniel Trigo; Santiago Led; Luis Serrano

doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2015.09.015

Lessons learned from the implementation of remote control for the interoperability standard ISO/IEEE11073-20601 in a standard weighing scale

Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2016 Jan:123:81-93. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2015.09.015. Epub 2015 Sep 28.

Authors

Héctor Gilberto Barrón-González¹, Miguel Martínez-Espronceda², Jesús Daniel Trigo², Santiago Led², Luis Serrano²

Affiliations

¹ Electronic and Communication Engineering, Autonomy University of Nuevo León, University Avenue s/n, University City, CP66450 San Nicolas de los Garza, NL, Mexico. Electronic address: mcgilbertobarron@hotmail.com.
² Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department, Public University of Navarre (UPNA), Pamplona, Spain.

PMID: 26483303
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2015.09.015

Abstract

The Point of Care (PoC) version of the interoperability standard ISO/IEEE11073 (X73) provided a mechanism to control remotely agents through documents X73-10201 and X73-20301. The newer version of X73 oriented to Personal Health Devices (PHD) has no mechanisms to do such a thing. The authors are working toward a common proposal with the PHD Working Group (PHD-WG) in order to adapt the remote control capabilities from X73PoC to X73PHD. However, this theoretical adaptation has to be implemented and tested to evaluate whether or not its inclusion entails an acceptable overhead and extra cost. Such proof-of-concept assessment is the main objective of this paper. For the sake of simplicity, a weighing scale with a configurable operation was chosen as use case. First, in a previous stage of the research - the model was defined. Second, the implementation methodology - both in terms of hardware and software - was defined and executed. Third, an evaluation methodology to test the remote control features was defined. Then, a thorough comparison between a weighing scale with and without remote control was performed. The results obtained indicate that, when implementing remote control in a weighing scale, the relative weight of such feature represents an overhead of as much as 53%, whereas the number of Implementation Conformance Statements (ICSs) to be satisfied by the manufacturer represent as much as 34% regarding the implementation without remote control. The new feature facilitates remote control of PHDs but, at the same time, increases overhead and costs, and, therefore, manufacturers need to weigh this trade-off. As a conclusion, this proof-of-concept helps in fostering the evolution of the remote control proposal to extend X73PHD and promotes its inclusion as part of the standard, as well as it illustrates the methodological steps for its extrapolation to other specializations.

Keywords: Extension package; ISO/IEEE11073; Interoperability; Personal health device (PHD); Remote control; Standard.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomedical Engineering / standards
Biomedical Engineering / statistics & numerical data
Computer Communication Networks
Equipment Design / standards
Equipment Design / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Point-of-Care Systems / standards*
Point-of-Care Systems / statistics & numerical data
Remote Sensing Technology / standards
Remote Sensing Technology / statistics & numerical data
Software
Telemedicine