Security Model of a Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations System in the Health Sector Environment of Developing Countries: A Case of Uganda

Authors: Excellence Favor, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa

Abstract:

Access to information holds the key to the empowerment of everybody despite where they are living. This research has been carried out in respect of the people living in developing countries, considering their plight and complex geographical, demographic, social-economic conditions surrounding the areas they live, which hinder access to information and of professionals providing services such as medical workers, which has led to high death rates and development stagnation. Research on Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations (UCIC) system in the health sector of developing countries aims at creating a possible solution of bridging the digital canyon among the communities. The system is meant to deliver services in a seamless manner to assist health workers situated anywhere to be accessed easily and access information which will enhance service delivery. The proposed UCIC provides the most immersive telepresence experience for one-to-one or many-to-many meetings. Extending to locations anywhere in the world, the transformative platform delivers Ultra-low operating costs through the use of general purpose networks and using special lenses and track systems. The essence of this study is to create a security model for the deployment of the UCIC system in the health sector of developing countries. The model approach used for building the UCIC system security carefully considers the specific requirements for the health sector environment organization such as data centre, national, regional and district hospitals, and health centers IV, III, II and I and then builds the single best possible secure network to meet their needs. The security model demonstrates on how the components of the UCIC system will be protected physically and logically in the health sector environment. The UCIC system once adopted and implemented correctly will bring enhancement to the speed and quality of services offered by health workers. The capacities of UCIC will help health workers shorten decision cycles, accelerate service delivery and save lives by speeding access to information and by making it possible for all health workers and patients to collaborate ubiquitously.

Keywords: Developing Countries, Health Sector Environment, Security, Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1089453

References:

[1] M. Denny, "Active voice to integrate nuance speech recognition into it’s unified communications solutions” voice access to messages makes it easy to manage daily communications. www.avst.com/pr-archive/ active_voice. As per July 12, 2012.
[2] M. Rouse, "Unified communications” multimedia services include messages of mixed media types. http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget as per July 12, 2012.
[3] Bhat and Norquist, "Telepresence Technology Overview. Cisco Telepresnce Cisco on Cisco.www.cisco.com/go/offices as per October 26, 2011.
[4] C. Jackson,” Net Defense - The Unified communications security testing suite” www.networld.com/community as per July 13, 2012.
[5] Cisco, 2013, "How Cisco Achieved Environmental sustainability in a connected workplace”. Cisco Connected workplace aspires towards a green work environment. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ ciscoitatwork/downloads/ciscoitatwork/pdf/TelePre. As per July 14, 2013.
[6] F. Baglioni, "Unified communications solutions” Learn how unified communications from Microsoft can reduce costs improve and instant messaging systems with an integrated windows-based platform. www.microsoft.com/uc/ as per July 12, 2012.
[7] R. Grigonis, "Inseparable: presence and unified communications” www.tmcnet.com/channels/calls-center as per July 12, 2012.
[8] A. Anoshin, "The connected enterprise” Unleash the true potential of your enterprise VoIP; IP-telephony-VoIP unified communications sorting out the definitions. http://bsc.it.com/books/connected-enterprise as per July 10 2012.
[9] J. Barlett, "Video Conferencing integration considerations” Integrating Video Conferencing with unified communications. http://searchunified_communications.techtarget as per July 12, 2012.
[10] S. J. Campbell, "Mobile unified communications featured”, http://www.tmcnet.com_channels/mobile_unified_communications as per July 12, 2012.
[11] J. Farla, "Unified communications” How remote call control powers. http://unified-communications.blogspot.com as per July 12, 2012.
[12] Teliris, 2012 "The magic of TelirisTelepresence is that you forget about the telepresence technology and focus on your meeting” www.necunifiedsolutions.com as per August 21, 2011.
[13] J. Scarpati, "Intranet strategy with collaboration products ensure fresh content” http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget as per July 13, 2012.
[14] M. Rouse, "Unified communications-Multimedia services include messages of mixed media types” http://searchunifiedcommunications. techtarget as per July 12, 2012.
[15] J. Parlas, "Unified Messaging and Unified Communications” http://www.viewer.media.bitpipe.com/1078177630_94711 as per October 26, 2011.
[16] J. Pirkola, "Unified communication and Collaboration” http://www.tieto.com/what-we-offer as per July 13, 2012.
[17] D. Don van and M. Parker, "Achieving cost and resource savings with unified communications” How unified communications provides proactive responses to the harsh economic environment and how Microsoft unified communications solutions can enable those responses for your enterprise. www.microsoft.com/uc as per July 13, 2012.
[18] MoH "Health Strategic Plan III 2010/11 – 2014/15” www.health .go.ug/docs/HSSP_III_2010.pdf.
[19] HSA, Uganda health system assessment 2011. http://health.go.ug/docs/hsa.pdf as per January 7, 2013.