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

描述（由申请人提供）：这个快速通道SBIR应用程序的总体目标是创建和部署一个创新的系统，这将有助于更多的长者继续住在家里，同时安全地照顾个人护理服务（PCS）机构。基于研究团队先前开发跌倒传感器和其他技术以允许老年人“就地养老”的经验，我们开发了一种不显眼的、家庭内的被动系统，该系统允许PCS护理人员远程警报危险情况。然后，他们可以通过语音和视频通信远程调查问题，并做出相应的回应。目前，在1130万独居老人中，约有30万人由PCS机构照顾。我们假设，这一系统将显着提高效率的PCS机构，从而使他们能够安全地照顾更多的老人在较低的成本，每个客户端。这反过来又将使更多的老年人不必搬进养老院或辅助生活设施。据我们所知，这是学术界或商业上正在开发的唯一一个这样的系统。在一个高层次上，拟议的系统包括一个自定义的活动/跌倒传感器和双向语音通信器（由老年人佩戴），几个现成的运动传感器和报警设备，两个夜视摄像头，一个基于平板电脑的家庭蜂窝“集线器”，以及一个安全的服务器，以分析数据，并将其呈现给PCS护理人员的方式，集成到他们现有的工作流程。第一阶段的目的，是根据小组先前就个人护理服务潜在客户的需要所作的研究，发展这个系统的试验计划，然后在少数安老院舍部署和测试这个原型，以收集意见。在第二阶段，我们将完善和扩大试点，以创建一个功能齐全的系统，然后在一年内更大规模地部署该系统。在此期间，我们将收集数据，以确定系统提供商是否提高了安全性，降低了照顾单个老人的成本，并提高了PCS机构的盈利能力和/或效率。

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 team's prior experience developing fall sensors and other technologies to allow elders to "age in place", 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 11.3M elders who live alone, about 300,000 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 "hub" 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 team'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 elders' 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.