Activity and Exercise Monitoring System (AEMS)

描述(申请人提供)：与大多数发达国家一样，美国的人口正在老龄化，而且正在以更快的速度老龄化。人口结构的这种变化正在对国家的医疗保健提供系统和相关的公共成本产生深远的影响。对老年人的长期护理是这一成本趋势的主要组成部分。大多数老年人及其家人的强烈倾向是保持在家中提供长期护理服务而不是在机构环境中提供的独立性。管理得当的家庭护理还可以在控制甚至降低长期老年护理成本方面发挥重大作用。然而，为了经济高效地提供这种护理，将需要为此目的而优化的基于技术的基础设施。实现这一目标的方法之一是提供低成本的技术，能够监测、维持和扩大老年人在家中的身体活动能力，从而提高他们的独立性。已经证明，以10-15分钟的平衡、锻炼和力量训练为主要内容的居家理疗方案可以减缓老年人，包括身体最虚弱的人和老年人的功能衰退。还有确凿的证据表明，定期进行有组织的锻炼或物理治疗可以改善老年人的活动能力和健康状况，特别是力量、有氧能力、步态和平衡的改善， 以及其他长期的功能益处，如减轻关节炎老年患者的疼痛症状，提高骨密度，从而降低骨折风险。也有证据表明，它可以抵消跌倒的关键风险因素，如平衡不良，从而降低老年人跌倒的风险。老年人，特别是老年妇女与跌倒有关的伤害与每年巨大的经济成本(190亿美元)有关，由个人、社会和医疗保健系统承担。不幸的是，将运动和理疗确定为重要干预措施的同一项研究，也确定了在仅使用传统解决方案时限制这类f类干预措施传播的实际和成本效益限制。我们建议开发一种便携式技术解决方案，不仅能够监控和测量老年用户的活动，还能够监控和测量他们对一系列编程运动教程的生理反应，并通过安全网络将这些数据提供给临床医生和研究人员。除了为老年用户及其照顾者提供显著的直接健康益处外， 该系统还将为研究人员和临床医生提供潜在重要的临床和 研究平台。该系统还将能够通过为第三方开发人员提供其他应用程序来促进社交互动，这些应用程序可以让老年用户参与社交网络活动。 公共卫生相关性：家庭物理治疗和锻炼计划可以减缓老年人的功能衰退，从而为他们和他们的照顾者带来显著的好处，同时还降低了长期护理的成本。我们建议开发一个软件和硬件系统，以促进这些类型的程序的低成本交付，并提供一个重要的未来研究平台。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The population of the United States, as in most developed nations, is aging and is doing so at an increasing rate. This change in demographics is having a profound affect on the nation's healthcare delivery system and the related public costs. Long-term care for the elderly is a major component of this cost trend. The strong predilection of most of the elderly, and their families, is to maintain the independence afforded by long-term care delivery in the home rather than in the institutionalized setting. Properly managed home care can also have a significant effect on controlling or even reducing the cost of long-term elderly care. However, in order to deliver this care cost-effectively a technology-based infrastructure optimized for this purpose will be required. One means of achieving this goal is to provide low-cost technology that can monitor, maintain and extend the physical mobility, and thereby the independence, of the elderly within the home. It has been demonstrated that an at-home physical therapy program consisting primarily of 10-15 minutes of balance, exercise and strength training can slow the functional decline among the elderly including the most physically frail and aged persons. There is also solid evidence that a regular regiment of structured exercise or physical therapy can improve measures of mobility and fitness in older adults, particularly strength, aerobic capacity, improvements in gait and balance, as well as other long-term functional benefits such as decreased pain symptoms for those elderly with Arthritis and promotion of bone mineral density and thereby decreased fracture risk. There is also evidence that it may counteract key risk factors for falls, such as poor balance, and consequently reduce the risk of falling in elderly. Fall-related injuries among older adults, especially among older women, are associated with substantial annual economic costs (>$19 billion) and are borne by individuals, society, and the medical care system. Unfortunately, the same research that has identified exercise and physical therapy as important interventions has also identified practical and cost-effective limitations that constrain dissemination of this type f intervention when using only conventional solutions. We propose developing a portable technology solution that will be capable of not only monitoring and measuring the elderly user's activities but also monitor and measure their physiological response to a series of programmed exercise tutorials and deliver this data to clinicians and researchers via a secure network. In addition to providing significant direct health benefits to the elderly users and their caregivers, this system will also provide researchers and clinicians with an potentially important clinical and research platform. This system will also be capable of promoting social interaction by providing the ability for third-party developers to deliver other applications that engage elderly users in social networking activities. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: At-home physical therapy and exercise programs can slow the functional decline among the elderly resulting in significant benefits to them and their caregivers, while also reducing the cost of long-term care. We propose developing a system of software and hardware that will promote the low-cost delivery of these types of programs, as well as provide an important future research platform.