Dynamic New Software Improves Care of Aging Brain

from ScienceDaily:

Innovative medical records software developed by geriatricians and informaticians from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research will provide more personalized health care for older adult patients, a population at significant risk for mental health decline and disorders.

A new study published in eGEMs, a peer-reviewed online publication recently launched by the Electronic Data Methods Forum, unveils the enhanced Electronic Medical Record Aging Brain Care Software, an automated decision-support system that enables care coordinators to track the health of the aging brain and help meet the complex biopsychosocial needs of patients and their informal caregivers.

The eMR-ABC captures and monitors the cognitive, functional, behavioral and psychological symptoms of older adults suffering from dementia or depression. It also collects information on the burden placed on patients' family caregivers.

Full text at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130314141134.htm

Medical home diagnostic tools

from gizmag:

Using online medical resources to diagnose our various aches and pains is just as likely to send someone rushing to the doctor in the belief they have some incurable, life-threatening disease as it is to put any fears to rest. Medical startup Scanadu, which is based at the NASA-Ames Research Center, is set to provide a set of home diagnostic tools that are designed to let users monitor their health over time and provide a better indication of whether a trip to the doc is actually necessary.

While Scanadu continues working on a tricorder-like device capable of capturing key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases in an attempt to claim the US10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, it has just revealed its first three consumer health products that are designed to put a doctor in your pocket.

Full text at:

http://www.gizmag.com/scanadu-scout-scanaflu-scanflo/25240/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8727133184-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

Automatic Stove Turn-Off Devices

from thisCaringhome.org:

These electric stove turn-off products can increase cooking safety for those with dementia who still have good stove skills and judgment but are liable to forget occasionally. These devices come with a timer, a motion sensor, and an automatic stove shut-off. Gas stove shut off devices are in development; we currently know of only one manufacturer that offers this product but we have not reviewed it yet. Below you will find three reviews of devices for electric stoves. All three turn off the stove top and the oven, but each one works a little differently. Some features may be safer or more convenient for your needs and/or the person you care for. Here are 4 things to consider...

Full text at:
http://www.thiscaringhome.org/products/auto-stove-turn-off-devices.php

The Future of Home Care Technology

from Aging in Place Technology Watch:

Sponsored by LivHome, Microsoft and Philips, the report entitled "The Future of Home Care Technology" looks at current technology use and processes, suggesting changes required to better serve recipients of care in the home.

Executive Summary

Experts agree that the home care industries (non-medical home care, home health care, and geriatric care management) are at the early stages of maximizing benefits of technology. Information about the individual client is not yet passed effectively or electronically between the various locations a care recipient may visit. In a survey of home care managers responsible for a total of 34,509 workers, telephone and email dominate the communication toolkit. Little in-home use is made of telehealth and chronic disease monitoring tech, even less use of video communication with either the care recipient or the family. As non-institutional home care plays a growing role along the care continuum, a Home Care Information Network (HCIN) will form, enabling important information to follow the care recipient across building boundaries, boosting quality and informing and reassuring families.

Full text at:

http://www.ageinplacetech.com/files/aip/Future%20of%20Home%20Care%20Technology%20Final-07-31-2012.pdf

First the Smart Phone, Now the Smart Home: Technology Anticipates, Meets Our Needs for Health, Efficiency

From SciencyDaily:


We have all heard of the smartphone and, any day now, most of us will have one. Not far behind: the smart home

Writing in the latest issue of the journal Science, Washington State University's Diane Cook says it won't be long before our homes act as "intelligent agents" that use sensors and software to anticipate our needs and tend to tasks that improve our health, energy efficiency, even social media. (...)

Cook has been applying artificial intelligence in test homes since coming to WSU in 2006. Sites around the Northwest, including 18 apartments in Seattle, already show that the technology can help monitor aging-in-place elderly residents and alert caregivers if they are not completing ordinary activities like rising, eating, bathing and taking medications.

Full text at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120329170435.htm

Home Monitoring for Heart Failure Management

from JACC (Journal of the American College of Cardiology):

A new state-of-the-art paper: Home Monitoring for Heart Failure Management

Abstract:

With a prevalence of 5.8 million in the United States alone, heart failure (HF) is a common syndrome associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditures. Close to 1 million HF hospitalizations occur annually in the United States, with the majority of these resulting from worsening congestion in patients previously diagnosed with HF. An estimated $37.2 billion is spent each year on HF in the United States. These statistics emphasize the need to develop and implement more effective strategies to assess, monitor, and treat HF. It has also become increasingly apparent that interventions geared toward identifying and monitoring subclinical congestion would be of value in the home management of chronic HF. Earlier identification and treatment of congestion together with improved care coordination, management of comorbid conditions, and enhanced patient self-management may help to prevent hospitalizations in patients with chronic HF. Such home monitoring extends from the promotion of self-care and home visitations to telemedicine and remote monitoring of external or implantable devices. This paper discusses the challenges in monitoring patients with HF, reviews clinical trials testing different monitoring strategies in HF, and highlights ongoing investigations into the optimal approaches to home monitoring for HF.

Link to the paper:

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/short/59/2/97

IBM Software Aids Research Aimed at Extending Seniors' Independent Living

Yahoo!:

Since June, 2011, University of Alberta researchers in collaboration with Edmonton 's Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital have been using IBM software to study elderly clients who volunteer to stay in a model, self-contained "independent living suite" at the facility. The suite is instrumented with sensors and equipped with smart devices collecting information about their daily activities.

The data will be used to understand how to make better use of healthcare resources, enable remote collaboration among providers, and contribute to early intervention and long-term management of chronic diseases. Researchers will also learn how to prepare older people for independent living, and extend the length of time seniors are able to live in their homes.

"We are using an avatar and the visualization to represent the people in the suite as this is far less intrusive than having a video or live monitoring system on them all the time," says Dr. Lili Liu , a professor of occupational therapy at the University of Alberta , and research affiliate at Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital.

This virtual-world view can be monitored in real time, and replayed recordings can be used for simulation training for health-sciences students. Ultimately, researchers hope to understand how the integration of sensor networks with virtual worlds can impact the future of at-home health monitoring and care delivery. 

Full text at:
http://beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-software-aids-research-aimed-130000669.html

Telehealth simulation lab

ComputerWorld: The lab simulates a remote or stay-at-home patient environment with the aim of improving telehealth services

A new research lab that simulates telehealth services for remote and stay-at-home patients has opened at the University of Western Sydney (UWS).

The Telehealth Research and Innovation Lab (THRIL), located at UWS’ Campbelltown campus, has a fully furnished home lounge room equipped with sensors that transmit data about its occupants to researchers in a control room residing next door.

UWS School of Computing and Mathematics, Associate Professor Klaus Veil, said in “real life” the home could be thousands of kilometres from medical staff and still be linked to multiple healthcare providers and specialists.

"Telehealth has the potential to deliver sophisticated healthcare services right in people's homes for a fraction of the cost of hospital or aged care facility stays,” Veil said in a statement.

“For the first time, rural and remote communities could also receive a level of healthcare, including specialist care that is comparable to services offered in large metropolitan areas.”

The new facility will focus on developing new software and hardware for remote sensing and monitoring, patient communication and video image processing; automated systems which assist patients remotely and maintain independence, provide electronic decision support to carers and clinicians; and data acquisition, management and analysis for research.

Full text at:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/402109/telehealth_simulation_lab_launches_uws/

System enables home care nurses to monitor patients from office

Carrol County Times:

A new technology is allowing Carroll Home Care nurses to monitor their patients without being physically present.

Carroll Home Care nurses are now using the Health Buddy, a home monitoring system that enables patients living in their homes to transmit vital signs and answer health-related questions through a handheld transmitter.

The Carroll Home Care staff began using the system in early September.

"It's allowing us to monitor the patient remotely so that we can keep up with their weight and blood pressure before they get too sick or have to go to the hospital," said Susan Norwood, clinical manager of Carroll Home Care.

Full text at:

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/system-enables-home-care-nurses-to-monitor-patients-from-office/article_ea923f04-e879-11e0-889d-001cc4c002e0.html

"This is the future"

Irish Examiner:

"This is the future," he said after seeing technology that has been developed in the top two age-related research centres based in Louth.

The county is one of 33 places locations around the world that meet the criteria of the World Health Organisation’s age-friendly cities network.

Mr Duffy is chairing the Age-Friendly Business Forum in Louth, which launches its action plan today.

"We are way ahead of the game here, and instead of cursing the darkness of the recession, here people are instead doing things," he added.

The Health Buddy technology, already in use in Dundalk, is credited with helping to save two lives.

It is now introducing the Home Sweet Home project, where 60 houses in the county will be fitted with interactive touchscreens and allow people with acute conditions to be monitored interactively in their own homes via Bluetooth technology.

Full text at:

http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/dragon-backs-health-buddy-plan-for-elderly-166464.html#ixzz1bEdOb4Wp

Remaking American Medicine: At-Home Monitoring

Developing an IT ecosystem for health could improve—and transform—the practice of medicine

A special commission, the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), issued a report last December calling for the creation of an information technology infrastructure for health care in the U.S. Such an IT ecosystem starts with the widespread adoption of electronic health records. But it could go beyond that to devices that collect data about how people live their lives or offer them feedback for making healthy choices. It could include individual databases that gather information relevant to health from a wide variety of sources, and collections of aggregated, anonymized data to aid public-health decisions or supplement clinical trials.

At-Home Monitoring

Health records could also be fed by devices that collect information about people as they go about their lives. The U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) system already uses the Health Buddy, an electronic device that plugs into a home phone line or Ethernet socket. Each day patients answer a series of questions tailored to their particular medical conditions, asking, for example, whether they have taken their medications or about their glucose levels. Answers are sent to the VA and flagged if they show warning signs.
"Versions of that will be in every home, or at least every home where there's a health condition that could be supported by that," says Molly Joel Coye, head of the UCLA Innovates Healthcare initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We will know what your blood pressure is every morning at 8 o'clock, or how it varies during the day, instead of every six or eight months when you go to the doctor."
Such increased monitoring could catch potential problems earlier, perhaps leading to more effective treatment or outright prevention of some conditions. It could also reduce costs. The VA estimates its in-home monitoring saves thousands of dollars per patient by reducing doctors' visits and nursing home care.

Full text at:

http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/9/122801-remaking-american-medicine/fulltext#body-2