Smartwatch App Could Provide Benefits for Nursing Homes
From: Medical Design Technology - 08/01/2016

Binghamton University researchers Assistant Professor of Systems Science and
Industrial Engineering Huiyang Li and PhD candidate Haneen Ali are developing
a smartwatch application to improve communication and notification systems
for nursing homes, which are often faulty and inefficient. The proposed
design integrates all of the existing safety systems at nursing homes - e.g.,
call lights, chair and bed alarms, wander guards, calling-for-help functions
- and provides alerts to users.

Through a process of iterative design and evaluation with prospective users,
a final design was well received by nursing experts in geriatric care, and at
local nursing homes. An on-going evaluation study shows that using this
system reduces staff response time to alarms.

Li and Ali hope to test the system in the future using a high-fidelity
prototype at real nursing homes. While buying a smartwatch for every employee
would be an added expense to nursing homes, the researchers believe that the
benefits of this app would far outweigh the cost, particularly with the
increasing availability of low-cost smartwatches.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2016/08/smartwatch-app-could-provide-benefits-nursing-homes
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2417

Link:
Huiyang Li
http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~hli