AT&T's mobile personal emergency response system will provide fall detection for seniors and allow them to connect with caregivers using machine-to-machine technology

AT&T is developing a mobile personal emergency response system (MPERS) to help elderly people when they fall. The platform will use GPS functionality and machine-to-machine (M2M) technology to connect patients remotely to medical professionals at monitoring centers.
 

The company is collaborating with Valued Relationships, Inc. (VRI) and Numera on the service. VRI provides telehealth monitoring and medical alert systems to seniors, the chronically ill and patients with disabilities. Numera manufactures a Libris MPERS device that works with monitoring software to remotely manage two-way voice, automatically detect falls and track seniors' location.

"With the MPERS mobility solution AT&T is developing, older people will be able to live independently but know that they are only seconds away from assistance if the need arises," Dr. Geeta Nayyar, AT&T's chief medical information officer, said in a statement.

AT&T will offer the MPERS as a managed service as well as provide wireless connectivity and sales, marketing and customer support.

 

Announced on March 4, the MPERS use two-way wireless voice communication to allow patients and caregivers to connect using the MPERS. The platform is designed for elderly people with disabilities, those prone to falls and people that need emergency connectivity to caregivers while still living independently.

One out of three adults ages 65 and older fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 20 to 30 percent of falls result in moderate to severe injuries, including lacerations, hip fractures or head traumas.

The wireless company will market the service to nursing agencies, day care services and home health care providers.

AT&T demonstrated the MPERS platform in New Orleans at the HIMSS13 conference, organized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The MPERS device's GPS functionality will report on a patient's location every 3 to 5 minutes, said Eleanor Chye, assistant vice president for AT&T ForHealth, told eWEEK in an email.

"Should a person fall while wearing the sensor, built-in technology will detect it and automatically alert a monitoring call center," said Chye. "A professional from the call monitoring center will reach out to the individual through instant two-way wireless voice communication on AT&T's network."

Several wireless devices on the market can help seniors when they fall. They include iLoc Technologies' TriLoc Personal Locator Device and the Philips Lifeline GoSafe MPERS.

"When falls and acute medical events (such as heart attacks or strokes) occur, each second that passes matters," said Chye. "Individuals need to be able to immediately alert emergency services and their caregivers when these critical moments happen."

AT&T also worked with VRI to develop a remote-monitoring platform (RPM), which went to market in September 2012. The RPM allows nurses at VRI's telemonitoring facility to monitor patients' vital data, including blood pressure, weight and pulse.

"Having access to additional data through the end-to-end RPM solution, such as a patient's blood sugar levels, weight, and blood pressure, could give providers invaluable information about what triggered the fall," Chye said.

The two platforms could work together to "help provide a clearer picture of what's really going on with a patient when they are outside the four walls of a hospital," said Chye.

Brian T. Horowitz is a freelance technology and health writer as well as a copy editor. Brian has worked on the tech beat since 1996 and covered health care IT and rugged mobile computing for eWEEK since 2010. He has contributed to more than 20 publications, including Computer Shopper, Fast Company, FOXNews.com, More, NYSE Magazine, Parents, ScientificAmerican.com, USA Weekend and Womansday.com, as well as other consumer and trade publications. Brian holds a B.A. from Hofstra University in New York.Follow him on Twitter: @bthorowitz

Nine Technologies To Ease Pain Of Getting Old

The baby boomer market is huge and aging fast. Help is on the way.

Via Forbes Magazine

In Pictures: Nine Technologies To Ease Pain Of Getting Old

The silver tsunami is swelling.

 

By 2025 the Earth will be home to 1.2 billion people aged 60 and older, double the number in 2000. Laurie Orlov, principal analyst at Aging in Place Technology Watch, a market research firm, estimates that the current demand for "aging-at-home" products and services is $2 billion. By 2020 it will have ballooned to $20 billion.

A slew of players are fixed on this massive market (see our slideshow of nine senior-friendly technologies and the brains behind them). In April 2009 General Electric  and Intel announced a 5-year, $250 million partnership to develop technology aimed at easing the transition to old age. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is on the case, too: In 1999 it formed AgeLab, a research center within the university's engineering school, to come up with new ideas for the next generation of seniors.

Then there are all the young outfits looking for a piece of the action. Here are a handful:

Omniscient Personal Assistant
By age 80, 55% of people have some form of measurable dementia. Attention Control Systems, in Mountain View, Calif., assisted by researchers at the University of Rochester, is developing smartphone software that detects when certain tasks have been forgotten. Users will wear a wristwatch bearing an RFID tag; if the RFID reader detects, say, that the stove hasn't been touched or that the user hasn't gotten out of bed, a soothing voice on their smart phone would remind them. All data would flow to a server accessible online by the user's caregivers. Expected to hit the market in 2012.

Smart Pills
Ensuring that older adults take their medication is a constant challenge. Proteus Biomedical in Redwood City, Calif., hopes to help seniors remember by implanting ingestible tracking devices on pills to make them smart. Before it dissolves, the tiny sensor sends a signal to another, band-aid style sensor on the skin, which in turn tells a mobile device when the person took their pill. Proteus has raised $100 million in equity capital, a quarter of it from Novartis.  Several clinical trials are underway. Meet the CEO in this video interview.

Driver Ed

MIT's AgeLab, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Ford Motor Company  are collaborating on systems that give automobile drivers feedback on their skills. The “Aware Car" (an earlier version was called Driving Miss Daisy) would combine software with eye-tracking devices and heart-rate monitors installed around the vehicle to measure driver fatigue and visual responsiveness, and give real-time feedback either through voice cues or color changes. Fatigue awareness is available in some cars now but most other enhancements wouldn't be in cars until 2015.

Robotic Maid
Over the next two years, researchers at 11 universities will be trying to perfect a robotic assistant, called PR2, built by Willow Garage, a Menlo Park, Calif. company. Wendy Rogers, a researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology, says that PR2 can move easily and get shorter or taller to pick things up around the house. Willow Garage plans to add sensing and learning capabilities to teach the robot to respond to someone's specific needs. Expected to hit the market in 2013. (For more on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, check out: "At The Extreme Edge Of Artificial Intelligence.")

Sleep Aid

Sensiotec in Atlanta has designed a bed that acts like a nurse. Its sensors measure vital signs, including heart rate and respiration, and looks for lack of movement in order to prevent bedsores. This information is relayed to the patient's personal health record, accessible from anywhere via the Web. The software looks for patterns and sends any disturbing changes to doctors using mobile software. On sale since June 1. Cost: $3,500.

After Shower: Safety, Privacy, and Independence

Individuals with limited mobility and dexterity find it a challenge to towel dry. Contorting to reach their back and legs is frustrating, painful and a safety hazard. Those who submit to assistance, suffer the loss of privacy and dignity. Use the Tornado Body Dryer and dry in pleasure instead of pain!

 

Read the entire advertisement at:

http://tornadobodydryer.com/disabledelderly.html