Abstract
We describe the experimental deployment of a network of wearable sensors that allows the tracking of the location and mutual proximity of individuals in a hospital ward, in real time and at a large scale. In the course of the deployment, all individuals accessing the premises were monitored for a period of one week, including health care personnel, patients, visitors and tutors. The data collected yields a rich dynamical picture of the contact patterns between individuals and between categories of individuals. As an example, here we show that by constructing a cumulative weighted contact network aggregating the dynamical data on the entire duration of the deployment, it is possible to reliably uncover persistent relations among individuals.
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© 2011 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
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Barrat, A. et al. (2011). Wearable Sensor Networks for Measuring Face-to-Face Contact Patterns in Healthcare Settings. In: Szomszor, M., Kostkova, P. (eds) Electronic Healthcare. eHealth 2010. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 69. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23635-8_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23635-8_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23634-1
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