Thank you for your interest in the Health Monitoring Station (HMS) and the Health Informatics degree program at Conestoga College. If you used the health monitoring station before and have a barcode with you, go here to enter your barcode number and review your record. If you still wonder what Health Informatics is and learn more about the Health Monitoring Station, you came to the right page.

The Health Monitoring Station (HMS) (also demonstrated in the video below) is a prototype built by Dr. Stefan Pantazi, professor in the Health Informatics degree program at Conestoga College, in order to illustrate some of the principles and applications of Health Informatics. Currently, the HMS prototype is a combination of common, inexpensive hardware (a blood pressure monitor, a Wii fit balance board, a XBox 360 Kinect sensor and a barcode scanner) and a custom software application that links them in a coherent ensemble, meant to demonstrate four steps which are commonly found in Health Informatics applications:

·Step 1: Measure, observe and gather data about something that is relevant to one’s health,

·Step 2: Make records of the data, observations and measurements  (e.g., in a database),

·Step 3: Gain new knowledge and information by analyzing the data records and by interpreting results,

·Step 4: Make good decisions using the information.

As you will see in the demo, the application makes use of speech synthesis technology to enable user-friendly interaction and guidance in using the system.  

Currently, the prototype is capable only of measuring health parameters (step 1) such as weight (using the wii fit board), height (using the Kinect sensor), blood pressure and heart rate (using the digital blood pressure device). However, the measurements can be done as often as needed and every value is being stored as a database record (step 2). After data accumulates, one could proceed to analyze the collection of records (step 3) in order to enable or support good decisions (step 4) related to one’s health.

We hope that the HMS project demo has opened your appetite to learning more about the field of Health Informatics. Projects such as the HMS are means to enable a kind of applied learning that is very much along the lines of personal experimentation, do-it-yourself (DIY) and "maker movement". If using information technology in healthcare is something that intrigues or makes you curious, please take some time to learn about our educational offerings in the area of Health Informatics. Should you have any question, feel free to contact us or visit us at the college. We are looking forward to hearing from you.