“A Reusable and Extensible Application Framework to Develop Context-Aware Mobile Patient Monitoring Systems”

Context-aware Mobile Patient Monitoring Systems (CaMPaMS) using wireless sensors enable the elderly and patients with chronic diseases to monitor themselves during their daily lives. However, the development of CaMPaMS is very complex. To overcome this problem, the Context-aware Mobile Patient Monitoring Framework (CaMPaMF) was introduced as an ideal reuse technique to enhance the overall development quality and overcome the development complexity of CaMPaMS. While a few studies have designed CaMPaMFs, there is no study designing or evaluating their application framework based on an application framework reusability model. Furthermore, there is no study integrating the identified domain requirements of CaMPaMS. Therefore, the aim of this research is to design a reusable CaMPaMF for CaMPaMS. To achieve this aim, 11 methods were used: a literature search, content analysis, concept matrix, feature modelling, use case assortment, domain expert review, model-driven architecture approach, static code analysis, reusability model, prototyping, and software expert review. The primary outcome of this research is a reusable CaMPaMF designed and evaluated based on an adopted reusability model and reviewed by software experts. CaMPaMF includes a domain model validated by consultant physicians as domain experts, an architectural model, a platform-independent model, a platform-specific model, and three CaMPaMS prototypes for monitoring patients with hypertension, epilepsy, or diabetes to demonstrate the reusability of the CaMPaMF and calculate the amount of reuse. This research contributes to the body of software engineering knowledge, particularly in the area of software design. Researchers can use the domain model to enhance the understanding of CaMPaMS domain requirements, thus extend it with new requirements. Developers can also reuse and extend CaMPaMF to develop various CaMPaMS for different diseases. Software industries can also reuse CaMPaMF to reduce the need to consult domain experts and the time required to build CaMPaMS from scratch, thus reducing the development cost and time.