THE USE OF THE INTERNET OF MEDICAL THINGS (IOMT) DEVICES CAN INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME OF HEALTHCARE EMERGENCIES, ENABLING SPECIALISTS TO RESPOND APPROPRIATELY AND PROMPTLY DEPENDING ON THE TYPE AND SEVERITY OF THE CASE. ONE EXAMPLE IS THE MATE PRO PLATFORM
Health emergency management, meaning the group of activities that need to be implemented to protect the health of citizens in the event of critical scenarios is an issue that has come back into the spotlight during the past few years, especially because of the Covid 19 pandemic and the aging population.
In the case of frail individuals such as non-self-sufficient elderly or disabled individuals, residents of facilities such as RSAs and nursing homes, the issue of responding to emergency situations takes on a particularly relevant and extremely complex role. Such individuals, in addition to being potentially exposed every day to critical events of various kinds and high risk potential for their health (sudden illness, falls, etc.), are often unable to communicate their distress to their caregivers.
Digital transformation and emerging technologies such as IoMT devices can take a crucial role in providing all stakeholders with access to comprehensive, consistent, and timely information to promote more effective, safer, and better coordinated care in emergencies.
SCAI Lab ‘s R&D area has designed and developed an innovative solution that offers care-givers and health staff a tool to continuously monitor the activities and health status of frail individuals in real time. This is an application consisting of the Mate Pro platform, based on the use of state-of-the-art IoMT radar sensors operating with ultra wide band (UWB) signals.
The Mate Pro platform, in particular, through radar sensors, can recognize emergency or potentially dangerous situations and promptly inform the care-giver or health staff to ensure fast intervention. The data sent by the sensors and interpreted by the Mate Pro’s analysis engine also provide a comprehensive set of information useful for monitoring each patient’s activities and quality of life. The system can show, for example, whether and for how long the patient is present or absent from a particular place (e.g., his room or bed), whether he or she is agitated, or whether he or she is having difficulty breathing.
The platform is delivered in the cloud in SaaS (software as a service) mode for easy deployment. Alerts generated by the platform, based on a set of programmable rules, can be sent in real time to the operators either on smartphones, via an installed app, or to the fixed locations of physicians and room managers.
The strength of this IoMT UWB solution lies in its low impact in terms of invasiveness for the patient. In fact, the assisted person does not have to wear any wearable device, nor is the use of cameras used. An additional guarantee for privacy and well-being.
