A collaborative approach for future ICT based healthcare services

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) evolution is tightly bound to Internet and the evolution of data networks. Nowadays data connection is available everywhere and the traditional voice communications are now a small part of the wide range of services that can be used for communicating (video, desktop sharing, chat, instant messaging). All these services are now easy to use and access from any portable device such as PCs, mobile smartphones and tablets. This paper introduces a service approach, called Functional Collaboration System (FCS), that allows complex organizations to communicate between parties leveraging on these technologies and their integration with a social network paradigm. Still today, in many organizations and workflows lots of time is spent to find out, when needed, the right person with the right skills. A typical search activity involves several people and calls in order to identify the right person that is available at the right time and in the right place. People involved in the search process might be interrupted while performing other tasks, thus increasing inefficiency. Functional collaboration system combines social network principles to provide an easy to use yet effective solution for skill search, workforce management, presence and instant messaging. It enables fast connections between workers, based on their role, relationships, availability, function, skill and position. This paper introduces the system architecture and provides practical application example of healthcare environment, identifying also a method for assessing the communication efficiency improvement provided by this approach.