Use case 2: moving from specialised care facilities to home

The user of this UC is an elderly person who, due to an accident, has a temporary physical disability. After surgery (or other treatment) the user is required to stay for a limited time (e.g. a week) at specialised care facility designed to help patients experiment with, and identify, the most suitable level of aid technologies for them to use once back home.

__Set-up boxes__* are installed at the premises of this centre with location technologies specifically targeted to assessing appropriateness of each technology to each specific patient.

A camera-based tracking system__* (or other high-accuracy RTLS) allows precisely tracking of the user’s movements (including libs) while in the living area of the apartment. Wearable sensors are used to assess the user’s level of fatigue and stress. This information can be used to assess the patient’s acceptability and the cost/utility ratio. The local public health agency runs a dedicated __service* on their servers to which all the devices within the public health system (including the one at the rehab center) can connect.

After a week the user identifies the most suitable aid and moves home where one of the family member (or other caretaker) installs a __set-up box__* connected to the TV set. In addition, small position sensors (e.g. with embedded acceleration measurement) are attached to the user’s garments (e.g., slippers and shoes, or wherever the user wants to in order to be as non-invasive and aesthetically acceptable). This allows monitoring the user’s mobility, automatically compiling evaluation tests, like the Tinetti mobility test.

Typically a social operator, helps the user with the cleaning and cooking during working days, while relatives cam stay with the user on weekends. The user should perform some daily exercises in order to train the muscles and articulations subject to the surgery, and he/she should try to move as much as possible. Also in this case assessing position over time is essential to assess the user’s conditions.

In addition family members can interact with the user through the __set-up box__* (e.g. via integrated video conference), reminding him/her when it is time to train, or guiding him/her and monitoring his/her performances during the exercises. Besides, the sensors can produce an alarm when indicating an abrupt deceleration followed by a prolonged stillness, indicating that the user could be fallen and not able to get up.

Family members and the user communicate also through an __App__* installed on their smartphones, which visualizes also the user’s profile and health details. Family members (if granted privileges by the user) can receive an overall description of the events related to the user’s visits and conditions. Besides, caretakers can use the __system__* to warn of particular problems; for example they can write a shopping list of items missing from the user’s house, or they can advise a consultation with a doctor, if the user observes a sign of depression.

Once a week the doctor comes to visit the user; the doctor is constantly updated by the system about every important event or observation regarding the user’s conditions. After verifying the patient’s status, the doctor updates the clinical folder and the care project, changing the required mobility exercises if necessary. At weekends, the system reminds user’s family members to perform simple tasks with their relative, e.g. small walks, according to the care project indicated by the doctor.

*) “set-up box”, “system”, “app” and “service” all refer to the various components being developed by the EC funded project UNCAP ( www.uncap.eu )

-- GiuseppeConti - 28 May 2015