Future Challenges and Recommendations

The future needs of signal and image processing applications in e-Health will involve a multitude of different signals, ranging from one-dimensional signals such as the ECG to real-time color video signals. There will also continue to be strong demand to move more and more services to smaller, low-power, compact computing devices. The challenge to eHealth signal and image processing systems is to deliver the highest possible quality while minimizing the computational power and bandwidth requirements. We begin with a general discussion of basic signal compression challenges associated with single signal and image processing modalities, and then consider challenges associated with the joint compression of a collection of different modalities. We discuss future challenges not only from the perspective of the development of real-time, collaborative systems, but also from their intended uses in Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems.