Personal, Portable Senior Care Device for Urgent Care, Disasters and Medical Emergencies
Summary
This personal, portable electronic device provides key health and medical information to health and medical care providers at medical and emergency centers about medical treatments the elderly bearers are receiving.
According to projections by Chile’s National Statistics Office, in 2019 there were 2,260,222 people ages 65 and older living in Chile, primarily in the Santiago Metropolitan, Valparaíso and Biobío regions. This same government agency projects a significant increase in the number of individuals making up this age group by 2035 (up to 3,993,821), accounting for 18.9% of Chile’s total population.
Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) affirms that between the years 2000 and 2050, the number of people ages 60 and older living on the planet will double, from 11% to 22%. This age group is expected to grow from 605 million to 2 billion over the course of the next half century.
Throughout 2020 and during the Covid-19 crisis, this has been the most at-risk group of contracting the virus and therefore should have limited their social exposure the most. As a result of the confinement measures imposed on this age group, the number of visits to health care centers dropped considerably, drastically interrupting treatments and medical check-ups.
This personal, portable, electronic device does not require an internet or telecommunication network connection to operate or provide key health and medical information to healthcare team’s involved in providing care to elderly people during urgent care, disasters and medical/health emergencies such as the one experienced in the year 2020.
Potential Applications
- Home Medical Visits (House calls)
- At Senior Care Facilities
- Public health care clinics (CESFAM), etc.
- During Health/Medical Emergencies
Development Status
TRL 4 Laboratory (small-scale) testing of prototype component
Opportunities
- For the public health care system home visit system
- To add to the array of services provided by the private health care system
- To add to services provided at private senior care facilities
Intellectual Property
- Chilean Patent No. 2017-2763 “System and method for managing and using essential information, relevant to health care, social, community, and administrative services, to facilitate the provision of these services to people through a personal, portable and autonomous device that uses radio frequency technology” pending.
Research Team
- María Torres, School of Medicine
- Margarita Quezada, School of Medicine