Lifestyle monitoring ‐ extending telecare services into prediction and prevention

Abstract

Telecare services based on sensors that provide an early and identified warning of an emergency in the homes of vulnerable people are being established quickly across the UK. More advanced systems based on lifestyle monitoring (LM) are being proposed that will be both reactive and responsive in nature. They will require the recording of much more data and will involve more system intelligence in order to analyse changes in a dynamic manner. Data will be collected both continuously from a battery of sensors, and intermittently from a variety of sources including monitoring centres and specialist medical devices. Many new applications will be possible ranging from an automatic assessment of risks and needs through to long‐term detection of a decline in well‐being and interventions using reminders and remotely controlled electrical equipment. Most of these applications will not be possible in a reliable manner using simple systems with few sensor inputs and limited or no system intelligence. More sophisticated systems will be capable of measuring subtle changes of relevance to many medical conditions. However, they will require significant attention to issues of ethics, consent, data ownership, storage and access because of their potentially intrusive nature.

Citation

Doughty, K. (2008), "Lifestyle monitoring ‐ extending telecare services into prediction and prevention", Journal of Assistive Technologies, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 35-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/17549450200800005