Closing the loop between hospital and home
June 13, 2014 | Eric Wicklund - Editor,
mHealthNews
Researchers at the University of
Missouri are working on a home-based monitoring solution for seniors that
automatically synchs with the hospital, a key step in the effort to allow more
people to "age in place" while reducing avoidable hospitalizations.
The "closed-loop
healthcare" system is more than a decade in planning, and was displayed
during this week's SmartAmerica Challenge Expo in Washington D.C. Its goal is
to allow seniors to live in their own homes while being monitored by healthcare
providers and other caregivers, and to allow the instant transfer of biometric
data from home to hospital.
Researchers say this set-up
would enable healthcare providers to react more quickly in the event of an
accident at home, as well as enabling them to spot medical concerns before they
become acute. They point to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study that
estimates the U.S. spends $31 billion each year on preventable hospitalizations
among adults, many of which could be avoided "through better integration
and coordination."
“In the system we’re developing,
the home and hospital devices would be interconnected, which would allow more
coordinated care with lower risk of complications,” said Marjorie Skubic, a
professor of electrical and computer engineering in the MU College of
Engineering and one of the lead researchers on the project, in a recent press
release. “As patients transfer between care units, sensor data are automatically
delivered to their bedsides by the integrated healthcare platform. When
patients return home, the system continues to track their activity, behaviors
and vital signs and send alerts if health changes are detected.”
“Consider an elderly man who lives
alone and falls and breaks his shoulder; when he falls, the system of sensors
detects his fall and sends for help immediately,” Skubic continued.
“Additionally, the physicians could evaluate video of the fall captured by the
sensors to determine how the man fell or what led to the fall. The fall data
also helps medical professionals educate the patient on how to prevent similar
falls in the future.”
Skubic and Julian Goldman of
Harvard University are the lead collaborators on the project, and part of a
team that includes researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, the
University of Pennsylvania, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Vanderbilt
University, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, IEEE and Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center, among others.
Among the various parts of this
system are sensors deployed in the home that can detect walking patterns and
bathroom use, as well as standard biometric data like pulse and respiration
rate.
“These ‘smart home’ systems have
the potential to create tremendous cost savings for individuals and health care
systems, especially if used throughout the country,” Skubic added. “By
streamlining the healthcare operation into a cohesive system, we will save
costs, provide better care and achieve improved health outcomes.”
