Remotely monitoring and preventing the development of pressure ulcers with the aid of human digital memories

Abstract

-There is growing concern, among senior personnel in the National Health Service in the UK, over the increased development of pressure ulcers. The occurrence of pressure ulcers has been attributed to prolong sedentary behaviour. Providing care, for this preventable condition, is costly and time-consuming for patients and medical practitioners. Extra bedside assistance is needed; however, with the workload of medical staff increasing, this is not always practical. In order to prevent the occurrence of pressure ulcers new and novel ways of remotely monitoring patients is essential. An interesting approach worth considering is the use of human digital memories, which provide visual life logs of a patient's physiological and environmental data. This paper discusses some of the current technologies used within the area and how they might be applied to the management and prevention of pressure ulcers. We have successfully developed a working prototype system to demonstrate the applicability of our approach.

Approaches that use software to support the prevention of pressure ulcer: A systematic review

“…In order to monitor these risk factors, in almost all cases, pressure sensors, temperature sensors and humidity sensors are used. Recently, however, alternative forms of monitoring were proposed as a vest with sensory coils [38], electro-tactile sensors that are in contact with the patient's tongue [33], a sensor to detect if the patient is lying, sitting or standing [10] and infrared optical transmitters that are able to monitor blood flow [1]. Based on the monitoring data, most of the approaches provides information about the patient, more specifically, the position of the body, maps of intensity and level of temperature, pressure and humidity to support health professionals in PU prevention.…”

“…These sensors are located in the patient's mouth and in contact with the touch receptors of the tongue, they generate electrical signals which are transmitted by a cable to an electronic device capable of determining the distribution and intensity of the pressure in the patient's body. In [10], sensors attached to the patient's body are used to identify whether he is sitting, lying or standing.…”

Augmenting human digital memories with physiological data

“…For example, we might be more inactive in the winter, due to a drop in temperature, or during the Olympics, more sport was being played. Using these collected memories, our health can also be monitored [34][35][36][37]. Markers for an increase in sedentary behaviour can be identified.…”