Project Summary
The objective of IS-ACTIVE is to devise a person-centric healthcare solution for patients with chronic conditions – especially elderly people – based on the recent advances in wireless inertial sensing systems. The project emphasizes the role of the home as care environment, by providing real-time support to patients in order to monitor, self-manage and improve their physical condition according to their specific situation.
IS-ACTIVE aims at producing tangible results in the form of fully-functional prototypes with a relatively short estimated time to market (1-2 years). The project addresses all the development phases of such a prototype wireless sensing platform for patients with chronic conditions, from hardware platforms and software packages to algorithms and user interfacing.
IS-ACTIVE results are to be validated through field trials involving patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD became the fourth cause of death worldwide due to an increase in smoking rates and demographic changes in many countries. Patients need to manage their chronic condition through extensive physical therapy. However, the physical therapy needs to be adapted to the situation of the patient and according to his/her progress. The sensor-based system proposed by IS-ACTIVE is therefore expected:
- To provide the patients an effective sensing system for daily use, which analyzes in real-time their physical activity and condition, and helps them to better manage their chronic conditions.
- To provide the patients an easy-to-use interface and a natural feedback, so that they become easily aware about the importance of self-management and they feel more inclined to take concrete action in preventing and managing their chronic conditions.
- To provide the caregivers an effective remote monitoring tool, through which they investigate the success of the physical therapy and adapt it with minimal effort.
The field trials will assess the added value of the IS-ACTIVE miniaturized wireless sensing system and reflect back how these objectives are met.