Internet of things and cloud computing as key technologies for health services provisioning: the virtual cloud carer project

Abstract

The demographic and social changes are causing a gradual increase of the population in situation of dependency. Current estimates claims there are 1.300.000 dependent persons in Spain and the public spending in 2010 was 5.500 million Euros for care of 650.000 dependents [1]. Although the budget has increased year by year since 2007, it is also true that the current global economic crisis requires a rationalization of social and economic resources more when the public health system has not yet reached the maximum number of dependents entitled to care. On the other hand, in the last decades there exists an undeniable increase in chronic diseases. Recent data of the European Union reveals the main chronic pathologies are the following ones: diabetes; according to International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the global cost of the diabetes in Europe was approximately of €68.300 million in 2007 and will grow until €80.900 million in 2025. According to countries, depending on the prevalence and the level of available treatments, the cost in diabetes will be in a rank of 2.5 - 15% of the total of sanitary expenses.