Mar 5 2013
Up until now, an elderly person suffering from a fall or heart attack could use a device around his neck to send for assistance – if he happened to be at home.
AT&T* is working to overcome this limitation with a mobile health (mHealth) solution that will automatically connect people in distress to medical assistance, in their home or elsewhere. Equally important, the system should track a person's location in real time and let neighbors or relatives know when – and where – a loved one has suffered a mishap.
This innovative mobile Personal Emergency Response System (mPERS) solution, being developed in collaboration with Valued Relationships Inc. (VRI) and Numera Libris™, plans to use Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connectivity to link people in distress virtually anywhere, at anytime to a professionally staffed monitoring center. Unlike current monitoring systems, which are often confined to a person's home and require the individual in distress to manually press a button for assistance, AT&T's mPERS solution intends to overcome these limitations by automatically triggering a notification to the monitoring center if something happens.
For example: A person wearing a small, portable mobile device suddenly falls. Without that person having to do anything, a sensor within the device alerts the monitoring center. A professional from the call monitoring center would attempt to reach out to the individual through instant two-way wireless voice communication enabled on AT&T's network. If the center decides further assistance is needed – or isn't able to get a response from the person – within minutes it would alert emergency services to send an ambulance or other emergency medical personnel, as needed.
Designed for elderly people who are living independently, have disabilities, or are prone to falls, AT&T's enterprise mPERS solution will be targeted to nursing agencies, adult day care services and other home care providers. The solution will be the latest addition to AT&T's growing list of mHealth solutions, which are transforming how healthcare is delivered and how people live.
"This mHealth solution is an example of how innovative technology can revolutionize healthcare," said Geeta Nayyar , M.D., Chief Medical Information Officer, AT&T ForHealthSM, AT&T Business Solutions. "With the mPERS mobility solution AT&T is developing, older people will be able to live independently, but know that they are only seconds away from assistance if the need arises."
"Even better, their friends, caregivers and relatives can be kept in the loop, if the user so chooses, so they can respond as needed," she added. "It will transform the whole emergency response experience, by keeping everyone connected, informed and engaged in near real time. I can't think of a better answer for an active, but aging, baby boomer population."
This solution will be part of AT&T's complete suite of remote patient monitoring (RPM) care solutions, including the AT&T RPM Software-as-a-Service and an end-to-end managed RPM service. Together, these solutions will provide a foundation for full aging-in-place care.
Healthcare providers can see demonstrations of this and other AT&T ForHealth solutions at booth #3727 at HIMSS13 in New Orleans from March 4-6, 2013.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.