Sensor Technology to Monitor Care Home Residents with Dementia v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Sensor Technology to Monitor Care Home Residents with Dementia
IRAS ID
229706
Contact name
Jonathan Synnott
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study investigates if sensing technology can provide more accurate and timely information about care home resident safety and well-being than is currently possible through routine carer observation.
The study will involve the use of a “smart home in a box” (SHIB) which contains: Thermal sensors, door contact sensors, a sound level sensor and a bed pressure sensor. The SHIB will guide carers through the technology deployment process through innovative near-field communication activated videos. The thermal sensor is the main technology being investigated, however the other sensors will offer supporting information.The thermal sensing technology is unobtrusive, non-contact, and non-invasive. It is placed in the ceiling of an area of interest, such as a bedroom or living room, and provides information about the environment and occupants. This information includes basic statistics such as the amount of activity in the area, when the area was occupied, and how many people were in the area. More advanced functions such as fall detection, agitation detection, and wandering detection, will be captured. The technology will provide real-time alerts (e.g. fall detected). Privacy and dignity are at the very heart of this technology, and no thermal data will be visible to the care team. Only metrics that are of benefit to care provision will be provided. This study will not involve any reduction of care provision.
The study will take place in the dementia unit of Kirk House Care Home, Belfast. This unit consists of nine flatlets designed to support those with dementia. During the 6-month study, the system will feed the information back to the care team. Once the study is complete, we will evaluate if this technology was capable of providing more accurate and timely information about resident well-being compared to routine carer observation
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
17/NI/0155
Date of REC Opinion
4 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion