The Hong Kong Polytechnic College’s College of Nursing, along with a neighborhood telecommunications firm, has developed a brand new cellular well being administration app for the aged.
HOW IT WORKS
Based mostly on a press launch, the mentioned app, which connects to a wearable well being monitoring machine, alerts a nurse or carer as soon as it detects abnormalities in an aged consumer’s vitals parameter, reminiscent of blood strain or blood glucose stage, enabling early intervention.
It additionally options 24/7 nurse interplay the place a consumer can simply begin a video name with their nurse anytime to hunt help or to judge their psychological and bodily situation.
The cellular well being app has been examined by round 200 senior contributors coping with continual situations from 5 aged care centres of the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service.
Findings from the pilot research confirmed that inside three to 6 months of use, there was a major improve in self-efficacy, a lower within the stage of melancholy and using medical companies, and an enchancment within the high quality of lifetime of the contributors. Unplanned GP visits additionally went down by 72% following three months of use of the app.
WHY IT MATTERS
Hong Kong’s inhabitants is quick ageing. In 2021, senior individuals aged 65 and above made up 20% of town’s whole inhabitants, rising from simply 13% a decade earlier. The median age of the inhabitants is 46.3, leaping from 41.7 in 2011. The WHO beforehand forecasted that 4 in 10 Hong Kong individuals will likely be 65 and above by 2050.
This development is predicted to influence public healthcare because it implies extra individuals will likely be in search of care for his or her continual situations. Hospital Authority estimated that the variety of sufferers with continual ailments will attain three million by 2039.
An strategy combining nursing help with digital know-how has the potential to alleviate strain attributable to such an increase in demand for public medical companies, famous PolyU College of Nursing Assistant Professor Dr Ankers Wong, who additionally led the research on the cellular well being app.
Their analysis group is now trying so as to add extra features to the app, reminiscent of AI and personalised content material, to persuade aged customers to proceed utilizing the app.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Exterior Asia, Telstra Well being in Australia launched final yr a cellular app for residential aged care referred to as CareKeeper. The cloud-based app allows employees to view, seize, and doc care from a resident’s aspect in actual time by way of a cellular machine.
