Integrated e-Healthcare System for Elderly Support

An integrated e-healthcare system for elderly support, which allows monitoring the biomedical parameters of a person in real time, anywhere and in any situation without interfering with its daily routines is presented.

Abstract

The fast rise of the population aging verified in the last decades brings new challenges to the modern societies. Most elderly persons have the usual problems related to the old age, like health chronic problems and sensory and cognitive impairments. Therefore, it becomes essential to ensure the quality of life, safety and well-being to all elderly persons. The evolution of the sensors technology, low-power microelectronics and wireless communication standards allows that the gerontechnology be increasingly available and present in our society. This paper presents an integrated e-healthcare system for elderly support, which allows monitoring the biomedical parameters of a person in real time, anywhere and in any situation without interfering with its daily routines. The developed system comprises a personal biomedical data acquisition subsystem and an information storage center. The developed sensorial devices are responsible for acquiring and transmit wirelessly the biomedical signals to a smartphone or tablet. The collected information can also be saved in a storage center, where it can be managed and maintained. The medical data are accessible to the responsible entities for creating the medical history of the elderly persons to ensure a well-founded diagnosis. The high processing capacity of the developed electronic system enables the implementation of advanced algorithms for detection of health problems in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the elderly throughout the day. The medical assistance platform also provides to the elderlies telemedicine consultations in the comfort of their home if the videoconferencing service of the platform is used.