BACKGROUND Nighttime activity, a common occurrence in persons with dementia, increases the risk for injury and unattended home exits and impairs the sleep patterns of caregivers. Technology is needed that will alert caregivers of nighttime activity in persons with dementia to help prevent injuries and unattended exits. METHODS As part of a product development grant, a controlled pilot study w...

BACKGROUND Recent guidelines recognize the importance of home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) as an adjunct to clinical measurements. We explored how people who have purchased and use a home blood pressure (BP) monitor make sense of, and act upon, readings and how they communicate with their doctor about the practice of home monitoring. METHODS A qualitative study was designed and participan...

Improving our understanding of sleep physiology and pathophysiology is an important goal for both medical and general wellness reasons. Although the gold standard for assessing sleep remains the laboratory polysomnogram, there is an increasing interest in portable monitoring devices that provide the opportunity for assessing sleep in real-world environments such as the home. Portable devices al...

One of the major factors limiting but also causing the application of modern technology in medicine is the response time to patients, should they need specialized medical care. In this work we propose a solution that is aiming to help and improve the patients’ life after a cardiac surgery. This is a group of patients that have to be monitored for a short period after the operation. The aim of t...

In this work we describe a framework for intelligent health monitoring of a person at home. In this context, pervasive computing has an important role allowing the treatment of several relevant variables. The solution integrates medical knowledge, patient physiological and behavioral data, and environmental conditions. The framework integrates modules for context management, reasoning and learn...

An important step towards reducing humankind’s reliance on unsustainable energy is by improving energy efficiency in a home or building. One solution to energy-intensive homes is to take environmental measurements in-house that can alert the owner of what rooms and conditions have high-energy waste (e.g., unnecessary air-conditioning or lighting). This paper describes the development and perfor...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the blood pressure dynamics after renal denervation through monthly home blood pressure measurements throughout the first 12 months. METHODS A cohort of 70 patients performed highly standardized monthly home blood pressure monitoring during the first year after denervation according to the European Society of Hypertension guidelines. At baseline and 12 months follow-...

AIMS To evaluate parental compliance with home cardiorespiratory monitoring of premature infants with apnoea, siblings of infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and infants with an apparent life threatening event (ALTE), during the first month of use. METHODS A retrospective review of the first month's recordings was conducted on 39 premature infants with apnoea, 13 siblings...

The complexity of home networks has evolved to a greater level of sophistication and complicacy in the recent times comprising of heterogeneous components like at least two computers, webenabled high-definition television sets, net-enabled blue ray disc players, iPods and many other such devices. Troubleshooting such a sophisticated smart home network in case of a malfunction by the novice end ...

A compact portable sensing system (PSS) was developed for home monitoring of patients with obstructive sleep apnea treated with nasal continuous positive-airway pressure (CPAP). The system consisted of a solid-state pressure sensor connected with plastic tubing to the side port of the nasal CPAP mask, a power supply, and a strip chart recorder. The device was validated against standard polysomn...