Development of a smart post-hospitalization facility for older people by using domotics, robotics, and automated tele-monitoring

• Main Authors: Carlotta Patrone, Alberto Cella, Chiara Martini, Silvia Pericu, Rosetta Femia, Annalisa Barla, Claudia Porfirione, Matteo Puntoni, Nicola Veronese, Francesca Odone, Niccolò Casiddu, Gian Andrea Rollandi, Alessandro Verri, Alberto Pilotto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PAGEPress Publications 2019-04-01
• Series: Geriatric Care
• Subjects: Elderly; smart home; design for all; delayed hospital discharge; ambient assisted living.
• Online Access: https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/gc/article/view/8122
• ISSN: 2465-1109; 2465-1397

Recent studies showed that about the 8% of beds are occupied by patients who experience a delayed hospital discharge (DHD). This is attributed to a delay in the arrangement of home-care assistance or in admission to long-term care facilities. Recently a lot of technologies have been developed to improve caring and monitoring of older people. The aim of this study is to design, implement and test a prototype of a technology based post-hospitalization facility for older people at risk of DHD by using domotics, robotics and wearable sensors for tele-monitoring. A sensorised posthospitalization facility has been built inside the hospital. Thirty-five healthy volunteers aged from 20 to 82 years were recruited. Clinical and functional assessment, i.e. motility index (MI), and human-robot interaction satisfaction were measured. A significant correlation was observed between automatic MI and the Gait Speed, the time sit-to-stand, and the Timed Up and Go test. Domotics, robotics and technology-based telemonitoring may represent a new way to assess patient’s autonomy and functional and clinical conditions in an ecological way, reproducing as much as possible a real life at home.