Technological support in caring for the elderly – an overview of trends in e-health

Elderly monitoring system and other e-health apps for the elderly

Experts agree – Poland is an aging country. Every year, more and more people reach retirement age. Custom web application development has been responding to the growing demand for care services for the elderly for a couple of last years now, and it has already improved both patient care and their safety. Learn more about the elderly monitoring system and other e-health solutions for the elderly.

Custom web application development in the service of the elderly

It is estimated that in 2035, nearly 1/4 of the population will consist of people at retirement age (right now they make up about 1/5 of the population). The aging process of Polish society is accelerating and it is causing an increasing demand for jobs related to caring for the elderly and for solutions to streamline their work. This is where technological solutions in eHealth come to aid seniors, caregivers and their families.

“Telecare encompasses a number of electronic services (web sites, services and devices) that aim to support families and caregivers in the care of the elderly. These include both communication tools between caregivers, seniors and doctors, as well as tools to support treatment and elderly monitoring system solutions,” Sebastian Pracuch explains, a managing director at Sensinum, a company specialized in providing IT solutions for the medical industry.

Support for seeking care

The most basic tool addressed to the families of people in need of constant care is an online database of caregivers for older people. Primarily they allow family members to quickly find assistance and choose a carer based on their personal profile, in accordance with the preferences and expectations of the patient. These websites can sort caregivers by place of residence and available hours of work.

It’s important that before ordering the service, the data supplied by both parties – the caregiver and the care receiver – is verified, allowing these websites to guarantee the security of its users. On the Polish market there are several websites that allow users to find care for an elderly person. The most popular search engine for carers in Poland is opiekadlaseniora.pl. It allows users to find a part-time caregiver as well as one for constant care.

All information in one place

Caring for an older person or a dependent requires elderly monitoring system. With such services as eCareDiary or eCaring doctors, the family and the patient can have a solid insight into the results of medical examinations, and the dosage and timing of drug use. In addition, these services allow you to schedule doctor visits and share medical records with the family and caregivers.

A knowledge base on the state of the health of the patient can also be developed on seniorreports.com, reminder-rosie.com and unaliwear.com, which will remind seniors to take their medications, but that’s not all. With real-time previews, these systems can allow users to share responsibilities between family members and to communicate between everyone involved in the care of an elder.

Quick reaction

Taking care of the elderly often requires a rapid response. The creators of OneCord and L!vely have created a simple tool called “a key of life”, whereby anyone in need of help can easily call an emergency responder. The caregiver is able to quickly locate the person in need and check on others involved in helping.

The ability to quickly locate a patient is crucial in the care of people with memory disorders and patients with Alzheimer’s. FindMe, in addition, can inform caregivers when a patient leaves a designated zone – if they leave the house alone, if they do not return from a walk, and so on.

Today technology allows also for more detailed monitoring of the patient and their performance when are left alone in the house. With Numera, caregivers are informed that an elder has fallen. More advanced systems can send extensive reports on a patient’s behavior – the frequency of visits to the toilet, when they wake up, time spent in different zones of the house, the number of times they go from room to room, etc. Thanks to this, caregivers can monitor and detect any possibly disturbing changes.

Very often these tools solve several problems at once, e.g. location, activity monitoring and fall detection. All of these features are provided, for example, by edisse.com or qmedichealth.com.

In fact, all of these solutions have one common goal – to detect emergencies and call assistance as soon as possible. They improve communication between the family and the caregiver, speed up the reaction to accidents, and as a result, significantly increase the effectiveness of aid. All medical data shows that, for example, in the case of cardiac arrest, assistance in the first five minutes after its occurrence increases the chance of survival by nearly 70%. “Not surprisingly, in a threatening situation, time becomes the most valuable asset,” adds Pracuch.

Everyday activities tailored to the needs of the elderly

eHealth services also provide help in everyday activities and in communication with the world. Learning to use basic equipment – a smartphone or a tablet – is a serious problem for many of the elderly, therefore Oskar Tech has developed an appropriate interface for mobile and SmartTV, whereas users of the SpeakSet platform can have video calls with all members of the nursing team through the TV. Simpli is a simplified operating system for mobile devices that lets you easily select options such as “Call help”, “Call the caregiver”, and so on.

The elderly can also become friends with Geri Joy – an assistant app that accompanies them 24 hours a day. Linked Senior, thanks to specific games, supports older people in the fight against dementia. People affected by this condition have problems with defining words and linking words to their meanings. They can facilitate communication with See What I Mean, an app that portrays the meaning of words.

Sensinum is a Polish software house supplying companies, marketing agencies and teams with software development solutions of the highest quality. Whether you need a subcontractor or want to cooperate with a software house directly, you’re in the right place. Sensinum means smooth communication and experienced developers working on advanced projects on a daily basis. If you want to know whether our offer suits you, contact us and consult your software idea for free.

Sensinum Team
Sensinum Team