Telemedicine in private homes

A promising application of distributed computing, in both cost/benefit and effectiveness, is the use of computer systems to monitor and control clients in the home-based caring-service. Along with a growing number of senior citizens, the costs necessary to offer a decent health care will increase. Through monitoring equipment, alarm functions, medical equipment, etc., it is possible to prolong the period a patient can safely stay at home, and thus both reduce the costs for the municipality and increase the patients quality of life. Reduced costs may also imply that more people can receive help from home-based caring service. One application of this technology is the home-based caring-service.

Background

The home-based caring-service aims at being a realistic alternative to hospitals and nursing homes. The service is extrovert and the clients live in their own homes. Assistance is given according to needs. The home service should cover the needs for help in daily life, nursing, caring, and medical treatment. Another important function of the service is the supervision, preventing work and social contact. The home service may further assist at coordinating and establishing contact between several other types of services, hospitals, nursing homes etc.

For several reasons the home-based caring-services are under an increasing pressure. First, out of the total population, the share of senior citizens is growing, and the share of older senior citizens is most rapidly growing. At the same time, the clients have ever-increasing demands regarding both quality and degree of the service. The accesses of resources are however not corresponding to the increase of demand, which in turn adds to the needs within the caring-services.

Goals

• Obtain knowledge about the use of telehomecare and telemedicine in homes, including sensor systems
• Develop models for system architecture for telemedicine in homes.
• Construct prototype systems for telehomecare and telemedicine in homes that fit the needs for patients with chronic illness, elderly, and/or lifestyle related diseases and health problems

Problems

Medical
1. How can telehomecare and telemedicine systems best be constructed from a medical perspective?
2. What are the psychical consequences of the use of telehomecare and telemedicine systems in homes?
Technical
3. How can telehomecare and telemedicine systems best be constructed from a technical perspective?
4. How can data deliverance be guaranteed (fault tolerance). All alarm signals must be delivered at the home-based caring service central responsible for the area where the alarm was activated.
5. How can security and privacy be managed? The system shall protect confidential patient data from any form of abuse.
Socio-economic impact of health service
6. How will telemedicine and telehomecare change the home care sector?
Ethical consequences
7. What kind of ethical consequence will the use of telemedicine and telehomecare systems impose to the home care sector?

Methods

The project will be based on research methods from medicine, medical informatics, social science, and computer science.

We plan to conduct more theoretical studies within the area security and privacy, model the medical situation and design (construct) prototype(s) of a working system for telehomecare and telemedicine in homes

Project Manager

Gunnar Hartvigsen, UiT

Project members from the partners

This project will be based on part-time contribution from several partners. In addition, a number of master students will be recruited. Spesifiser hvilke partnere som er med og personer.

Researchers

Gunnar Hartvigsen, UiT/NST, (Daniel Nygård, NST)

International collaborators

Assoc. Prof. George Demiris, University of Washington, Seattle; Prof. Alexander Horsch, Technical University of Munich.

Project start/stop

Start: 1.1.2007 – 31.12.2011

Contribution to health care

Telemedicine in (private) homes will be very important in order to offer adequate health care for the growing number of elderly.

Contribution to new industry

The market for telemedicine in homes is expected to grow rapidly in the next decades. The market is world-wide, and the problems are similar all over the world.

Contact info

e-mail: Gunnar Hartvigsen, mobil phone: +47 906 57 785

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