Vitor Maia's thesis defense

Towards a metamodel to support the creation of interactive software systems for managing the location and use of medical equipment in healthcare centers

Reporters

Mme Si-said Cherfi, Samira. Professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers - Paris, France.
Ms Coimbra Delicato, Flavia. Professor at the Federal University of Fluminense, Brazil.

Ms.

Examiners

Mr. Girard, Patrick. Professor at the University of Poitiers, France.
Ms. Silva Herbert, Juliana. Professor at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Mr. Miceli de Farias, Claudio. Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Thesis co-supervisors

Mr. Kolski, Christophe. Professor at Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, France.
Mr. Horta Travassos Guilherme. Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Mr. Horta Travassos Guilherme.

Co-supervisor

Ms. Marçal de Oliveira, Káthia. Professor at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, France.

Co-mentor

Ms. Marçal de Oliveira, Káthia.

The management of medical equipment in healthcare centers is crucial, particularly in emergency departments. However, due to the dynamic nature of these environments, this equipment can be unavailable for a variety of reasons in different situations. Existing management tools rely on manual interventions, which adds to the workload of the healthcare professionals involved and does not keep up with the continuous use of equipment.

This thesis proposes a generic solution approach to manage the location and use of medical equipment while minimizing manual interactions. A meta-model has been developed to enable the creation of specialized IoT applications, tailored to the specific needs of healthcare centers of different types.

The research began with a literature survey on fundamental themes, followed by the design of the meta-model, which was iteratively evolved. Interviews with healthcare professionals provided information on the medical context. The feasibility of the meta-model was tested by two IoT applications in experimental studies simulating simple hospitals. The main contribution of this work is the creation of an effective meta-model for developing IoT applications suitable for medical equipment management, with potential for continuous improvement for various health centers.