A healthcare system as a service in the context of vital signs: Proposing a framework for realizing a model

In an age of cloud computing, users do not access a particular system, but a service. In a more centralized and seamless environment, it becomes important to view software as a service, or “SaaS”. In particular, ubiquitous healthcare urgently needs to reflect the view of the healthcare system as a service, “HaaS”, for the purposes of health promotion, disease prevention, and general well-being. Overcoming the current limitations of medical technologies, medical practices, and business, HaaS requires a more sustainable environment, including addressing issues of interoperability, service reuse, maintenance, and integration. This paper suggests a framework for realizing a HaaS model, focusing on vital signs-oriented systems. The proposed framework consists of four distinct modules: three modules for receiving, transforming, and analyzing vital signs and the fourth module, called a service-oriented architecture (SOA) component module, enabling access to medical services. We believe that the framework promises dramatic reductions in software development costs on the one hand and lays a foundation for users to access a rich and seamless service in a more convenient way on the other. This paper describes a framework for the HaaS model and presents an example service that we implemented, a calorie-tracking service, based on it.