Applying software-defined networking to support telemedicine health consultation during and post Covid-19 era

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infection has altered the society, economy, and entire healthcare system. Whilst this pandemic has presented the healthcare system with unprecedented challenges, it has rapidly promoted the adoption of telemedicine to deliver healthcare at a distance. Telemedicine is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for collecting, organizing, storing, retrieving, and exchanging medical information. But it is faced with the limitations of conventional IP-based protocols which makes it challenging to provide Quality of Service (QoS) for telemedicine due to issues arising from network congestion. Likewise, medical professionals adopting telemedicine are affected with low QoS during health consultations with outpatients due to increased internet usage. Therefore, this study proposes a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based telemedicine architecture to provide QoS during telemedicine health consultations. This study utilizes secondary data from existing research works in the literature to provide a roadmap for the application of SDN to improve QoS in telemedicine during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from this study present a practical approach for applying SDN in telemedicine to provide appropriate bandwidth and facilitate real time transmission of medical data.

The management of COVID-19 cases through telemedicine in Brazil

“…Previous studies on telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic have focused on applications that include, forward triage [12], automated logic flows (bots) [12], management of chronic conditions [13], mental health services [14], palliative care [15] and teleneurology [16]; challenges, that include, coordination and integration of involved sectors [12,17,18], creation of regulatory frameworks [4,13,[17][18][19], accessibility to mobile technologies [20]; reviews [21,22]; suggestions of a Software-Defined Network architecture for telemedicine purposes [23]; suggestions on potential benefits of using telemedicine for vulnerable groups that do not have access to clinical services due to COVID-19, such as gestant women from developing countries, as pregnancy has been reported as a clinical condition with risk factors [24,25]; discussions on the legislation of telemedicine as its adoption has become increasingly widespread and new legislation frameworks will need to be developed to satisfy this new demand [26]; discussions about lessons of operationalizing telemedicine in ophthalmology and its potential effect for health systems [27,28]; propositions of models of clinical attention that consisted in a mix of in-person visits with telemedicine support [29]; discussions of solutions for long-term COVID-19 consequences that can include telemedicine support [30]; propositions of offering telehealth service in public spaces as a form to prevent the intimated partner violence (IPV), as it has been reported that this situation has been increased during the pandemic COVID-19 due to the process of lockdown [31]; studies of the impact of COVID-19 of clinical trials which concluded that the pandemic has damaged the quality of the studies [32].…”

A Review of Mobile Applications Available in the App and Google Play Stores Used During the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…[6][7][8] Likewise, telemedicine, virtual software, and virtual care are useful tools of information and communication technologies (ICT) for the remote treatment of COVID-19 patients. [9][10][11] These digital technologies are universal in scope and minimize the exposure of patients and physicians to the COVID-19 virus. In this regard, the global penetration of ICT around the world related to the smartphone area in 2019 was 3.2 billion users, and it is projected to reach 3.8 billion in 2021.…”

The role of hydropower in renewable energy sector toward co2 emission reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…According to International Energy Agency IEA (2020a), the temporal shut down of industrial sectors in countries due to the tight lockdown has resulted in low demand for electricity which has fallen by 5% to 10%, especially in European countries such as Spain, Italy, and so on. This raised the need for electricity operators needed to balance the demand and supply of energy (Chen et al, 2020;Jnr et al, 2020b;Jnr et al, 2020a). Since the renewable energies are largely unaffected, their demand has increased (IEA 2020b).…”