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A key focus of assistive technology has been to help people stay at home longer and more safely, preventing falls and keeping them out of hospital.
Publication date:
October 12, 2022 • 44 minutes ago • 5 minutes read • Join the conversation Kanata-based high-tech executive Patrick Tan created the start-up Esprit-ai with two partners, all of whom with family members with aging-related challenges that partners believed technology could improve. Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia
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Dr. Frank Knoefel has spent much of his career exploring how technology can improve the lives of older adults.
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Today, amid growing strains on the healthcare system, a rapidly aging population and rising rates of dementia, this work has become more urgent and technology is playing a bigger role in care. seniors.
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Researchers, health officials and high-tech companies are looking for ways to help people stay at home longer, to prevent falls that could send them to the hospital, and to provide better care if they require institutional care.
Knoefel is a physician at the Bruyère Memory Program and principal investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute. He has long been involved in the Sensors and Analytics for Monitoring Mobility and Memory program (SAM3), a collaboration between Bruyère and Carleton University, which is part of a national program of centers of excellence on aging. Through this work, researchers explore innovative solutions to enable people to remain healthy and independent as they age.
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But Knoefel admits he adjusted his perspective after his wife challenged him to find more immediate and practical solutions.
“One day my wife said, ‘So what have you changed?’ Which patient did you help?
“It made me think we need to be more practical than we are. We need something for today.”
Dr. Frank Knoefel is a physician at the Bruyère Memory Program and principal investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute. Photo of the Bruyère Research Institute / Photo
Knoefel and his team began working on projects that could be put to use immediately, using materials and technology that already exist, in many cases, in addition to long-term work on innovative approaches to support aging.
Meanwhile, Kanata high-tech executive Patrick Tan was also thinking about the immediate and growing demand for technology to help people age safely.
Tan, a veteran of several technology businesses, created the start-up Esprit-ai with two partners who also had a long history in the high-tech industry.
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All of them had family members with aging-related challenges that the partners believed technology could improve.
“We wanted to use our experience to do something a little more meaningful,” said Tan, who is the company’s CEO.
The company uses sensors and artificial intelligence to monitor people in their homes and also in more complex environments such as retirement and long-term care homes. Tan calls it the invisible cure for dementia.
A key focus of assistive technology has been to help people stay at home longer and more safely, preventing falls and keeping them out of hospital. This is the goal of the SAM3 work that has been the basis of Knoefel’s research, as well as the monitoring systems that Esprit-ai operates for people.
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Knoefel and researchers have also tested the smart monitoring technology in more complex settings, including at Greystone Village Retirement Home, a transitional care unit overseen by Bruyère.
The retirement home, located in Old Ottawa East, has been converted into a short-stay transitional care unit for hospital patients who are preparing to move home or to another facility. It was opened in response to the pandemic and is run by a private company, Integrated Care Solutions.
The smart system that’s part of the research there uses sensors to monitor patients’ movements and artificial intelligence to record data and alert caregivers when something isn’t working. It is especially aimed at detecting and analyzing nocturnal wanderings that can cause falls or other problems.
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Greystone’s research project looks at whether technology can be individually tailored to patients’ behaviors and needs, to better help staff monitor and respond to patient movement and prevent or quickly identify falls, to better understand patient actions and to help communicate with patients. who speak a different language than the staff.
The system uses sensors that help track movement and alert staff if urgent care is needed, such as when a patient gets out of bed but doesn’t make it to the bathroom and may have fallen. Sensors can be placed under a mattress, on walls or on doors.
The technology isn’t meant to replace healthcare workers, but to help them work better, Knoefel says.
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“It’s about being as smart and efficient as we can and using resources as best we can.”
Similar technology is being used at Richmond Care Home, a retirement home for women living with dementia.
Staff members found the technology helped them do their jobs, said Robin Meyers, director of community support services for Carefor, which operates the home in Richmond.
The home continued to use the technology after the investigation ended.
“It’s like having eyes and ears in every room. The staff never wants us to wear it,” Meyers said.
Bruyère and Esprit-ai worked with Carefor to develop a sensor system to track patient behavior and assist staff.
The system, which sends text messages to staff to alert them of potential problems with residents, allowed staff members to reach residents more quickly and better understand their behaviors and who needed urgent care.
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Among the information the system followed was that many residents were getting up and walking around at night. As a result, some of the residents’ medications were adjusted and they began to sleep better, which improved their overall health.
Meyers says the technology shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for staff or a gap in an era of healthcare worker shortages.
Even with extra staff, Meyers said they otherwise wouldn’t be able to understand what was going on in each person’s room in order to prioritize help, which the tracking system allowed them to do.
“I don’t think this technology is going to replace staff members, it’s just helped us support them better,” Meyers said. “It’s almost like a friend of the staff.”
Technology to help people stay in their homes longer is also a focus of the Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County, said Dean Henderson, a special advisor.
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The organization has created an aging-in-place program designed to be practical and preventative and to support people in the early to middle stages of dementia who would not normally qualify for home and community care, it said. Henderson said.
“We wanted to go above and beyond and support people before a crisis happens,” he said. As part of the program, an occupational therapist provides an in-home assessment and recommendations, and staff provides training and recommendations for technology, such as the Esprit-ai monitoring systems.
A recent survey found that 100 percent of Canadians surveyed said they wanted to age at home.
“So we have to help people succeed,” Henderson said.
“Technology is desperately needed to support everyone who wants to age in place. We just don’t have the human resources.”
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