Sposaro Frank, Danielson Justin, Tyson Gary
Department of Computer Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2010;2010:3875-8. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2010.5627669.
Non-pharmacological management of dementia puts a burden on those who are taking care of a patient that suffer from this chronic condition. Caregivers frequently need to assist their patients with activities of daily living. However, they are also encouraged to promote functional independence. With the use of a discrete monitoring device, functional independence is increased among dementia patients while decreasing the stress put on caregivers. This paper describes a tool which improves the quality of treatment for dementia patients using mobile applications. Our application, iWander, runs on several Android based devices with GPS and communication capabilities. This allows for caregivers to cost effectively monitor their patients remotely. The data uncollected from the device is evaluated using Bayesian network techniques which estimate the probability of wandering behavior. Upon evaluation several courses of action can be taken based on the situation's severity, dynamic settings and probability. These actions include issuing audible prompts to the patient, offering directions to navigate them home, sending notifications to the caregiver containing the location of the patient, establishing a line of communication between the patient-caregiver and performing a party call between the caregiver-patient and patient's local 911. As patients use this monitoring system more, it will better learn and identify normal behavioral patterns which increases the accuracy of the Bayesian network for all patients. Normal behavior classifications are also used to alert the caregiver or help patients navigate home if they begin to wander while driving allowing for functional independence.
痴呆症的非药物管理给照顾患有这种慢性病患者的人带来了负担。照顾者经常需要协助患者进行日常生活活动。然而，他们也被鼓励促进患者的功能独立性。通过使用一种离散监测设备，痴呆症患者的功能独立性得到提高，同时减轻了照顾者的压力。本文描述了一种利用移动应用程序提高痴呆症患者治疗质量的工具。我们的应用程序iWander可在几款具备GPS和通信功能的安卓设备上运行。这使得照顾者能够以经济高效的方式远程监测他们的患者。从设备收集的数据使用贝叶斯网络技术进行评估，该技术可估计患者走失行为的概率。根据评估结果，可根据情况的严重程度、动态设置和概率采取多种行动方案。这些行动包括向患者发出可听提示、提供回家的导航方向、向照顾者发送包含患者位置的通知、在患者与照顾者之间建立通信线路以及在照顾者、患者与患者当地的911之间进行多方通话。随着患者更多地使用这种监测系统，它将更好地学习和识别正常行为模式，从而提高针对所有患者的贝叶斯网络的准确性。正常行为分类还用于在患者开车时开始走失时提醒照顾者或帮助患者回家，从而实现功能独立性。
