COLUMBIA, Mo. — After back-to- back hospital visits for congestive heart failure, Eva Olweean figured her health was back to normal. But the nurses at her retirement home knew better: Motion sensors in the 86-year-old’s bed detected too many restless nights.
Tiny sensors are placed unobtrusively over the toilet, shower and doorways to detect Olweean’s movements inside her apartment.
Pneumatic tubes tucked in the mattress and beneath her easy chair measure weight shifts. Caregivers and researchers at the University of Missouri at Columbia study the data, noting changes in behavior that could signal medical problems.
Recognizing the coming “silver tsunami” of graying baby boomers, tech companies are racing to help aging Americans spend more time living independently instead of in nursing homes. For the first time, the annual International Consumer Electronics Show this month in Las Vegas featured a section devoted to high-tech senior living.
What was keeping her up?
Among the advances at the show were motion sensors, the kind that allowed Olweean’s nurses to figure out what was keeping her up at night. She was experiencing excessive bloating, a common symptom of congestive heart failure. So Olweean’s cardiologist prescribed diuretics and made other adjustments to her medication that helped her again sleep soundly.
“We try to identify when those small problems occur so we can fix them before they become big problems,” said Marjorie Skubic, an electrical and computer engineering professor who works with Sinclair School of Nursing researchers on the aging-in-place project.
At Oatfield Estates in the Portland, Ore., suburb of Milwaukie, residents’ movements in the private retirement home are tracked by what employees call “bed bugs” — embedded motion sensors that detect when someone’s behavior could trigger a medical alert.
Such sensors, “smart carpets” and other tracking devices will be the norm in both private homes and group settings within the next decade, said Jason Hess, chief executive of Elite Care, the Portland company that owns Oatfield Estates. He said that will especially be true as insurers start embracing the cost-saving devices.
“You will see a lot more places implementing these,” he said. “It comes down to cost and out-of-the- box thinking.”
Talking boxes, robotic pets
On display at the electronics show were talking pill boxes that remind seniors to take their medicine at regular intervals and notify out-of- town caregivers if that doesn’t happen.
There were robotic companion pets that mimic the real thing for lonely seniors in need of a psychological boost.
Fifteen of the 35 residents at Olweean’s apartment complex take part in the motion-sensor research project. Olweean, a retired factory worker, said she barely notices the sensors.
“I don’t even know they’re here half the time,” she said.
Researchers at the University of Missouri are also fine-tuning a more advanced monitoring system using virtual-reality silhouette images to allow observation of posture, gait and other movements. The silhouettes are considered a preferred alternative to more invasive video cameras.
Experts acknowledge that rapid technological advances in elder care must be balanced with privacy protections. That problem concerns Fredda Vladeck, executive director of the United Hospital Fund’s Aging in Place Initiative.
“Technology does have a role to play,” she said. “It’s a tool, not the answer.”
