Telemonitoring for Independently Living Elderly: Inventory of Needs & Requirements

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the precise focus required of a telemonitoring system for the domain of independently living elderly. Particularly, we investigate (1) the needs of telemonitoring for this particular domain, and (2) the requirements for such a telemonitoring system. For our investigation, we performed an extensive study of the literature, as well as performed interviews with 36 individuals active in the field. As a result, we established numerous needs to be considered, being foremost information need on safety, with regard to care response on emergencies (e.g., falling incidents, wandering), as well information need on dependence on care, with regard to inactivity, self-neglect and loneliness. Subsequently, we established numerous requirements to be addressed, being foremost the use of non-wearable sensors, unobtrusiveness, durability, reliability, privacy, and ubiquitousness. In our discussion of the requirements, we detailed specifically the topics of focus, functionality, and form of a telemonitoring system for this domain.

Designing to support prescribed home exercises

“…Work at the intersection of these two spheres, in which medical professionals impact on patient activities outside the clinic is less comprehensively explored and has tended to focus on monitoring scenarios. For example, remote monitoring applications to keep track of vital signs (e.g., blood pressure [24]), or to detect non-medical emergencies (e.g., falling incidents [8]) or to report on performance of the activities of daily living (e.g., feeding [26]) have been widely discussed and the benefits of these communication channels (chiefly in terms of timely alerts and early problem diagnosis) are well established [3].…”

Data model for health telemonitoring and persuasive system design

“…In case these muscles are not relaxed enough, a patient immediately receives a local feedback in the form of vibration of a certain device. Other dedicated systems are also implemented that telemonitor elderly patients (Bakkes et al, 2011;Fouquet et al, 2010).…”