Distributed data mining in a ubiquitous healthcare framework

Ubiquitous Healthcare (u-healthcare) which focuses on automated applications that can provide healthcare to citizens anywhere/anytime using wired and wireless mobile technologies is becoming increasingly important. Ubiquitous healthcare data provides a mine of hidden knowledge which can be exploited in preventive care and "wellness" recommendations. Data mining is therefore a significant aspect of such systems. Distributed Data mining (DDM) techniques for knowledge discovery from databases help in the thorough analysis of data collected from healthcare facilities enabling efficient decision-making and strategic planning. This paper presents and discusses the development of a prototype ubiquitous healthcare system. The prospects for integrating data mining into this framework are studied using a distributed data mining system. The DDM system employs a mixture modelling mechanism for data partitioning. Initial results with some standard medical databases offer a plausible outlook for future integration.