Protecting Health Care Workers from Infectious Diseases using Physical Proximity Networks (PPN)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major global health threat, and Health Care Workers (HCWs) may have an increased risk of infection through occupational exposure. In the case of hospital outbreaks, contact tracing of close physical interaction needs to be performed. In this article, we propose an IoTconnected contact tracing system based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons for subject identification and data transmission. The proposed system consists of BLE receivers, BLE wearable tags, an edge gateway and a cloud server. The system records interaction information such as entering/exiting time of an HCW to isolation rooms in the hospital. The collected data will be further analyzed to inform infection prevention policies. The performance of the proposed system is assessed through qualitative and quantitative experimental results. Finally, the capabilities of the current system and future research directions are briefly discussed.

SCB-HC-ECC–Based Privacy Safeguard Protocol for Secure Cloud Storage of Smart Card–Based Health Care System

“…Cloud computing is the new paradigm for outdated conventional computing by adopting newer technology and many economic aspects. It is beneficial for both customers and service providers ( 2 , 11 ). However, it has many advantages and disadvantages that restrict its usability.…”

“…With the advent of cloud computing, we can rent servers and run geophysical modeling applications on the authoritative node present everywhere globally. We can securely store an enormous amount of data that can be accessed only by authorized users and applications (1)(2)(3). It enables us to rent a virtual server, switch it on or off, and expand it to fulfill users' immediate requirements.…”