Nephele - Remote Healthcare Services, Ultrasound Medical Device Dematerialization

The NEPHELE project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme under the topic “Future European platforms for the Edge: Meta Operating Systems,” aims to revolutionize the orchestration of Hyper-Distributed Applications (HDAs) across the compute continuum from Cloud-to-Edge-to-IoT (Internet of Things). By addressing existing openness and interoperability barriers, NEPHELE introduces automation and decentralized intelligence mechanisms powered by 5G and distributed Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The project focuses on two core innovations: an IoT and edge computing SoftWare (SW) stack that supports virtualization and interoperability in a device-independent manner, and a synergetic meta-orchestration framework for coordinating cloud and edge computing platforms. These innovations will be demonstrated and validated across various vertical industries, including disaster management, logistics, energy management, and remote healthcare. In this context, our work demonstrates the process of virtualizing the core functionalities of conventional ultrasound medical systems, effectively abstracting away physical constraints and facilitating remote Ultrasound exams via edge/cloud services. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of Remote Ultrasound Medical Services, focusing on its IoT components and services, highlighting the positive impact on sustainability, cost reduction and increased flexibility, despite slight reductions in performance metrics.