An Automatic Communication System between Nursing Home and Residents' Families

Yoshie Ashida
Koshien University

Setsuko Sagawa
Koshien University

Youko Ohashi
Koshien University

Makoto Fukui
Koshien University

Kiyoko Makimoto
Osaka University

Nobuyuki Ashida
Koshien University

Topic: Next Generation Internet Health Applications
Track: Research
Type: Poster presentation

     Full text: Not available
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     Last modified: May 20, 2006

Abstract
Introduction: If your family member or relative resides in a nursing home, you will worry if the resident is doing fine or not. In such case, you will feel reassured if you get periodical daily reports from the nursing home to know if the resident is doing fine. But, such communication tends to be neglected except emergency, because nursing home staffs are tied up for their daily work. We studied a dementia's wandering patterns in a nursing home, using an automatic monitoring system with IC tags. Observation studies on wanderings action are conducted in three nursing homes in Japan and South Korea. This system which was intended to automatically record wondering observation results also recorded dementia elders' routine actions. Therefore, we can also use this system as an automatic reporting system for residents' families.
Method: Several trigger fields were set up in a nursing home and nursing home staff and the residents wore IC tags. When an IC tag is in a trigger field, it transmits its ID and the trigger field ID, which tells the information about "Who", When" and "Where". The information is automatically recorded and classified according to ADL. A summarized daily profile is sent to a family of a resident by e-mail.
Results: We developed two systems, one is to automatically record daily profiles by using IC tag system and the other is to send them by e-mail.
Discussion: This automatic monitoring system through the use of IC tags improves the communication between a nursing home and residents' families, providing information on a daily basis for families without increasing the burden on nursing home staff.
Reference:
1. Ashida N., Makimoto K. Nozaki C., Nakagawa M., Suzuki M. and Kawahara T.:A Monitoring of Wandering Behavioral Pattern of Senile Dementia with IC Tag.,3rd APT TELEMEDICINE Workshop 2005, Proceedings p80-84,2005
2. Ashida N., Ashida Y., Takagishi Y. and Kawahara T.:The Survivor Search System using an IC Tag,4th APT Telemedicine Workshop 2006 p220-224,Pakistan 25-26, Jan 2006.