Distributed systems are concerned with how to organize a set of computing and distributed resources for specific applications. They promote forms of collaboration among different kinds of autonomous computers that appear to its users as a single coherent system. This paper is a short report of R&D activities and applications in the field of distributed system carried out by the research group. Compute-intensive applications for mass screening programs will be discussed. Moreover, a digital device for remote patient control with a look to the pervasive distributed sensor networks for personal safety applications is described. SFINGE, a research project on collaborative distributed systems based on virtual organizations is under development to innovate the production process in e-learning. At the purpose, is involved the Computer Center for Science at the INFN-Bari. It is a high-throughput computing facility connected to the European Grid Infrastructure and Worldwide LHC Grid.

The purpose of this paper is to present a medical device for the reliable diagnosis of psychosomatic illnesses, such as depression, by using the electroencephalographic signal. The presented device allows detecting any asymmetries between the signals from the frontal cortex in both hemispheres. The device is small and easy to use so that it is suitable also in medical studies of general practitioners.

Portable Biomedical Devices for health care management are producing a great impact in the monitoring of patients located in areas different from clinical environments such as houses, military bases, ships, and the like. A number of applications, ranging from data collection, to chronic patient surveillance, and even to the control of therapeutic procedures, are being implemented in many parts of the world. The development of portable devices for telemedicine is accelerated by new technologies such as wireless transmission, GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers, Internet applications and GSI (Giga Scale of Integration) of electronic devices. In recent decades the development of portable biomedical devices has led to the presentation of numerous patents. The aim of this paper is to review some of these patents, with emphasis on the possibilities of patients remote monitoring, providing all necessary information in real-time from their homes to the health facility. Thus the specialist can make his diagnosis from the hospital. This is the new concept of home care.