System for PCS Agencies to Monitor, Investigate and Respond to Elder Safety Risks

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant The overall objective of this Fast Track SBIR application is to create and deploy an innovative system that will help more elders to continue living at home while being safely cared for by Personal Care Service PCS agencies Based on the research teamandapos s prior experience developing fall sensors and other technologies to allow elders to andquot age in placeandquot we have developed an unobtrusive in home passive system that allows PCS caregivers to be remotely alerted to dangerous situations They can then remotely investigate the issue through voice and video communications and respond accordingly Currently of the M elders who live alone about of them cared for by PCS agencies We hypothesize that this system will significantly increase the efficiency of the PCS agencies and thus allow them to safely care for more elders at a lower cost to each client This in turn will allow more elderly people to avoid having to move into nursing homes or assisted living facilities To our knowledge this is the only such system being developed in academia or commercially At a high level the proposed system consists of a custom activity fall sensor and two way voice communicator worn by the elder several off the shelf motion sensors and alarming devices two night vision cameras an in home cellular andquot hubandquot based on a tablet computer and a secure sever to analyze the data and present it to PCS caregivers in a way that integrates into their existing workflow The aims of Phase I are to develop a pilot of this system based on the teamandapos s previous research into the needs of our potential PCS clients then to obtain feedback by deploying and testing this prototype in a small number of eldersandapos homes In Phase II we will refine and expand the pilot to create a fully functional system then deploy that system on a much wider scale for a one year period During this time we will collect data to determine if the system providers improved safety the reduction of costs to care for an individual elder and increased profitability and or efficiency for the PCS agency PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE of the M elders who live in the US want to live in their own home as long as possible The cost to build enough nursing home beds for those that will need them in will be $ B and it will cost $ B a year to maintain these andquot Aging in placeandquot is therefore desirable from both an elder satisfaction and an economic perspective If successful this project will allow elders to remain in their own homes longer deferring or possibly even eliminating the need to move into a nursing home because it will enable Personal Care Service agencies to provide safer care to more clients in their own homes and at lower costs to the individual client