| HEALTH DATA MANAGEMENT
JUNE 19, 2006
Red Wing Technologies Inc. is developing sensor-based information technologies to monitor the daily activities of patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. The Minneapolis-based vendor has received a $750,000 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The goal of the project is to wire a person's living quarters to unobtrusively track their movement to determine if they are physically active and doing basic activities.
Using $900,000 in previous grants from the National Institutes of Health, Red Wing developed a tracking system, called eNeighbor, that's designed to monitor residents at assisted living facilities. The system being developed for patients with traumatic brain injuries will use eNeighbor as a core technology and incorporate new functionality designed specifically to monitor brain injury victims.
The eNeighbor system, marketed to independent assisted living facilities, relies on sensors installed in patient living quarters. A watchband sensor detects when a person leaves or returns to a residence and also has an emergency call button. A bed sensor detects when a patient lies down or gets up; contact sensors detect specific doors or cabinets being opened; a water sensor detects water being used in the tub, sink or toilet; an appliance sensor detects lamps, televisions, irons and other devices being turn on; and a motion sensor detects human movement within a residence.
The sensors feed data to a base station in the living quarters that analyzes the data and alerts caregivers or emergency staff if a person does not appear to be active.
The technology for monitoring patients with traumatic brain injury will be similar, but will include mechanisms to prompt a person to eat or do other daily activities. For instance, a patient with a brain injury may get up in the morning, use the bathroom to shower and brush their teeth, then forget to eat breakfast and sit in their bedroom for an extended period. Red Wing Technologies will develop software that will enable the base station to remind the patient, via a phone call or other means, to eat. Or, the patient may be contacted if sensors determine a clothing iron was left on or something else appears amiss.
The Department of Defense is hoping the technology can assist soldiers returning home with traumatic brain injuries, but the technology also will be appropriate for other brain injury victims, according to the vendor. The vendor will develop the technology with the veterans hospital in Minneapolis, nearby Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute and researchers at the University of Minnesota. More information is available at redwingtechnologies.com.
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