ZTE teamed with Telefónica Deutschland and the City of Düsseldorf's health department to pilot an e-health programme for the elderly, as part of a broader smart home project.
The Chinese infrastructure company said the three parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) covering the launch of the first German open living lab covering healthy ageing and the smart home, which will be established in Düsseldorf during the second quarter of 2016.
ZTE explained that the e-health pilot forms part of that MoU, and will provide information on the wellbeing of elderly people to relatives, friends and carers through a smartphone app. The company emphasised that monitoring will be conducted using sensors rather than cameras, and explained that several updates will be provided through the app each day.
Monitoring of a person's condition will be handled by a cloud-based ZTE trend analysis platform, with information from sensors transmitted to a gateway using Telefónica Deutschland's mobile internet network. ZTE noted that all information will be hosted in a data centre located in Düsseldorf, meaning that all data is protected by German IT security laws. Patient data will only be accessible by authorised people, the company added.
Zhang Renjun, SVP of ZTE, noted that remote monitoring offers benefits in terms of controlling the cost of providing health care services, including insurance and nursing services.
The pilot is also another step in the development of ZTE's smart city technologies, Renjun said. "With the development of the new-generation information technologies such as Internet of Things, cloud computing, and mobile internet, the smart city concept has become increasingly popular," he noted.
Telefónica Deutschland's director of business development Pia von Houwald said the operator's collaboration with ZTE and the City of Düsseldorf "is a good combination of the benefits of digitalisation" at a time when "important questions regarding the future of social interaction" are being raised.
Andreas Meyer-Falcke, health councillor for the City of Düsseldorf, added that the city wants "to show that digital solutions are to the benefit of all and can be used to contribute to tangible improvements in living conditions and in particular healthcare."
For more:
- see this ZTE announcement
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