REAL-TIME LOCATION SYSTEMS FACILITATE INDEPENDENCE IN LONG-TERM AND SPECIALIZED CARE SETTINGS

• Published in: Innovation in aging 2017-07, Vol.1 (suppl_1), p.710-711
• Main Authors: Sullivan, D.H., Kearns, W., Mihailidis, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abstracts
• ISSN: 2399-5300; 2399-5300
• DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igx004.2547

In this symposium, speakers will discuss clinical and research initiatives utilizing real-time location systems (RTLS) to promote functional independence of vulnerable adults in home and clinical environments. The intended use of RTLS to inform clinical decision-making will be described. Session one will focus on RTLS to monitor older residents’ movements in an assisted living environment; data reduction and analysis techniques that map resident ambulation patterns around the facility and reveal intra-individual pattern changes in order to predict falls in this vulnerable population will be presented. Session two presents a unique integration of RTLS with bed monitors to support a nurse-driven clinical initiative promoting early and progressive ambulation in hospitalized Veterans. The validity, sensitivity and specificity of system-generated reports of patient time in motion, out of bed but sedentary, and at bed rest and the challenges of differentiating various modes of Veteran movement will be discussed. In the final session, ongoing work on model “Smart Home” integrated systems to support Veterans with traumatic brain injury in various environments will be presented. The session will describe a system that prompts a patient to perform specific functional tasks, the data integration strategies used to detect the behavior sequences in the task, and planned enhancements to the system that will reengage a Veteran to resume interrupted behavior sequences at the point in the sequence where the requisite behaviors have been omitted.