MU in-home sensors monitor changes in aging adults’ health

Published on June 15, 2012Many adults wish to maintain their independence as they age, but health problems often require them to live in assisted-care facilities where they can be observed by medical professionals. Now, technologies developed by University of Missouri researchers could help aging adults stay in their own homes longer while still being monitored by health care providers.Marjorie Skubic, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the MU College of Engineering, and Marilyn Rantz, a Curator's Professor of Nursing in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, have used motion-sensing technology to monitor changes in residents' health for several years at TigerPlace, an eldercare facility in Columbia. Now, they have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to expand their work to a facility in Cedar Falls, Iowa.Fiber networking in Columbia and Cedar Falls will provide the infrastructure necessary for health care providers in Missouri to remotely monitor the health of elderly residents in Iowa. High-speed video conferencing capabilities will allow communication between staff and residents at the two locations."Using what we're already doing at TigerPlace and deploying it at the facility in Cedar Falls will allow us to further test the concept of remote health care," Rantz said. "Monitoring individuals with in-home sensors allows us to unobtrusively monitor their health changes based on their individual activity patterns and baseline health conditions."