CSIRO trials home sensor technology to assist elderly, people with disabilities

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By Sarah Sedghi

New sensor technology is being trialled by the CSIRO to assist elderly Australians and people with disabilities in their homes, and the agency says the results are promising.

The technology uses a network of home sensors to track a person’s movements, collect critical health information, and potentially alert carers to emergencies.

Those involved in the trials said the technology had the potential to enhance the lives of patients and their carers.

Sunshine Coast academic Dr Eleanor Horton has been caring for her partner for 15 years.

In 2000 he had a stroke and his mobility is now limited, but Dr Horton said the trial of new technology in their home had helped them both.

“I’ve also got ageing parents, so I know some days if I spend more time with my parents on a weekend and I come home and look at the iPad, I can sort of facilitate the conversation around ‘well you haven’t moved much today out of your chair’,” she said.

“Whereas previously you could say ‘well, yes I have’.

“Now it’s there in black and white, and the colour in the chart changes with the number of steps, so you can tell quite clearly.”

Sensors allow people to ‘monitor themselves’

The sensor network technology was installed in homes and monitored environment factors like heat and movement.

Dr David Hansen, chief executive of the Australian e-Health Research Centre at the CSIRO, said the sensors monitored “how well they look after themselves over time”.

“What we expect to come out of that is that we will be able to, from all that sensor data, pick up the unusual events and set up alarms and alerts,” he said.

The network requires an internet connection and the data is then fed back to the patient, their family and carers.

“We’re using all that data from that sensor network up into a cloud for processing and then we provide that data back to an iPad app for the person in the house,” Dr Hansen said.

“They can actually monitor themselves and this comes back to enabling people to monitor their own independence and their own health status, or to a clinician, and we’ve got a web browser which provides that information to their families.”

Using technology to ‘better meet needs’

The project began nearly three years ago and was a collaboration between the CSIRO and community organisations Global Community Resourcing and Bromilow Home Support Services.

Bromilow chief executive Paul Hawting said the technology had been trialled effectively in the homes of some of his clients.

“We have a greater number of older people coming to the market, so to speak. Those people also have greater care needs,” he said.

“People are no longer going to nursing homes, they’re being supported and encouraged to remain at home.

“With that, though, comes higher support needs. We see a lot of people with greater degrees of acuity, chronic health conditions, much more acute levels of dementia, for example.

“So technology is another tool that we can use to spread the resources that we have more broadly, and indeed perhaps even target some of our services more finely to better meet the needs of particular people.”

For Dr Horton, the sensor network has helped support her as a working carer.

“We’ve got an ageing population. We’ve got an increasing number of stroke survivors in the community,” she said.

“A third of stroke survivors are disabled and my partner is hemiplegic, which means he only has effectively one working arm.

“He is mobile with a stick and a splint, but technology like this really aides rehabilitation in the home.

“And people are living longer. We’ve got the technology and we’ve got the medication, so if those two go hand in hand it can only enhance people’s lives.”