Abstract:

Aging populations and rising health costs have created the need to care for more patients in their own homes. Australia's (CSIRO) is developing "Hospital Without Walls", aiming to provide continuous monitoring of patients in certain diagnostic categories. The key technology is a miniature, wearable, low-power radio that can transmit vital sign and activity information to a home computer, from which data may be sent by telephone line and the Internet to appropriate medical professionals. The initial clinical scenario for this work is monitoring of elderly patients who have presented to hospitals following repeated falls.