2. eHealth services for the elderly at home and on the move

Session 6d, 20 May 2010 IST-Africa 2010 Copyright 2010 <LifeSTech>

eHealth services for the elderly at home and on the move

María F. CABRERA-UMPIÉRREZ

Viveca JIMÉNEZ

María M. FERNÁNDEZ

Jesús SALAZAR

Miguel A. HUERTA


ToC

◘ Introduction

◘ The problem

◘ The solution

◘ Material and methods

◘ eHealth services

◘ Stakeholders

◘ Modules

◘ Health profile

◘ Business benefits

◘ Conclusions

2


Introduction

◘ During the last decades the life expectancy has been increased very quickly◘ This process entails biological and psychological changes that affect the daily life of

elderly people• Biological changes can cause some type of disability• Psychological changes can produce alterations in everyday behavior

◘ The associated problems to the ageing are those diseases that can be considered chronic◘ Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) contribute positively to economic

growth in both developing and developed countries◘ International governments are designing specific strategies related with the adoption and

use of ICTs• Different Governments from the African Region are developing their country-specific ICT

policies and have incorporated the development of ICTs into their growth and poverty reduction strategy

3


The problem

◘ Despite these advantages and international efforts, there are already several challenges that need to be addressed in the near future

• Gaps in access to ICT remain large, as do differences in adoption of ICT applications. Access to ICT is highly unequal across and within countries.

• In most developing countries, there are service gaps among poor households and in rural areas.

◘ Therefore, different international organizations have been or are working in the development based on ICT solutions to remove those problems that imply a digital divide.

◘ What actions have been taken?• Undertake international research and development efforts aimed at making available

adequate ICT equipment for end users.

• Promote research and development to facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all, including disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable groups.

• Encourage research on the Information Society, including innovative forms of networking, adaptation of ICT infrastructures, tools and applications that facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all.

4


The solution

◘ The European co-funded projects OASIS and REMOTE are aiming at providing ICT based services for the improvement of the quality of life of the elderly people.

◘ How?• Controlling and monitoring health

conditions of elderly people

◘ Where?• At home REMOTE

• On the move OASIS

◘ Who is the target user?• Elderly person with no disease

associated excepting those disabilities related with his age

5


Materials and Methods

◘ The approach selected enables to develop high quality software that is flexible scalable and easy to maintain

◘ Use cases (UC) and scenarios of use have been defined in detail

◘ Technological benchmarking on the different domains for independent living have been carried out

• Literature and market survey

• User surveys, interviews and field of work

• Questionnaires

◘ The UCs have been enabled the description of the functionality of the eHealth service for the elderly users

6


eHealth services

◘ Health profile definition and personalization

• Automatically collect information related to the user’s health status to keep the user profile up-to-date

• Questionnaires the user fills in

• Medical doctor has access and permission to modify the health profile

7

◘ Health remote monitoring • Records detail of daily activities • Generates reports about the data collected• Sends the data to the doctor• Triggers the user to take some

measurements and guides him trough the process


eHealth services

◘ Health Coach• Provide the

“educational/motivational” application

• Communicate with the medical doctors

• Remember his medication/treatment schedule

• Receive information and educational material on demand

• Plan activities• Get advices related to his health

status

8

◘ Health alerting and assisting applications

• Alerts the user, relative or control centre in case of emergency or potential dangerous situation


Stakeholders

◘ Key stakeholders• Elderly people

• Relatives

• Caregivers (located at the Central Monitoring Service)

◘ The whole system works in a distributed way, so that the information can be shared and analysed, depending on two main issues:

• User profile: type of user that will access the data. • Urgency of the communications: need to send the data immediately to be able to act accordingly, to

keep the user’s health controlled.

9


Modules

• Biomedical and activity data• Research prototypes and commercial

10

Sensors

• Health data collection unit• Health interpretation unit• Health transmission unit

Elder’s terminal

• Health assistance applications

Health applications server


Health profile

11

-HealthData-NutritionalData-ActivityData

HealthProfile

ContainsHealthData

-<<static>>-ActivityHabits-<<dynamic>>-ActivityDiary

ActivityData

-<<static>>-Nutrition Habits-<<dynamic>>-FoodDiary

Nutrition Data

containsActivityData

-<<static>>-PastHistory-PersonalHabits-HealthCondition-Disability-MonitoringPrescription-Medication-<<dynamic>>-CurrentlHealthParameters

HealthData

containsNutritionalData


Business Benefits

◘ REMOTE and OASIS solutions must be easily adapted to fit different legal, institutional, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

◘ How?• Promote a modular approach with 3 product

versions• Light version• Core version• Full version

• Specify a wide range of use cases and set up Pilots in different countries

• Cater for device independent and alternative designs repository

12


Conclusions

◘ A thorough analysis has been carried out to identify the gaps of matching of existing technologies with the user requirements to provide a reliable eHealth service to the user

◘ Compatibility, extensibility and adaptation are applied to the present service• Compatibility integrating in one monitoring domain of multi-parametric biomedical and

activity sensors

• Extensibility for future advances in the sensors development market

• Adaptation taking into account the specific needs of each elder user

◘ The system will be validated through a series of pilots in different European cities to verify the viability of the system

13


For further information:

[email protected]

2. eHealth services for the elderly at home and on the move

Technology

health status health

users health status

ehealth services health

elderly users

type of user

adoption of ict applications

ict solutions

target user