Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Different levels of interaction and easy interactive features, allowing the elderly to ask
for contact&help, confirm actions, play cognitive stimulation games, receive video calls
Highly customized and targeting all user groups involved in care provision for a person
with mild dementia or cognitive impairments and the person himself
Integrated system with open architecture that can be easily extended with new features
in the future
Focuses on mild dementia persons in a holistic way, looking at all their needs (home
and person safety, promote independence, prevent social isolation, increase quality of
life, etc)
Maintain or increase quality of life not only to persons with mild dementia, but also for
the relatives who suffer care stress and are also socially isolated because of caring for
the dementia relative
Able to offer additional services with disease progression
On the other hand studying the competition, following points have to be considered:
An end-to-end service approach should be addressed, so that this solution can be easily
deployed. That includes: helpdesk, formal and informal care-givers, technicians, all
accessible through a single entity
The “breakeven” requires a large number of installations in order to have affordable
service cost
5. Pilot operation and user evaluations
The pilot operation activities started with final testing of the integrated platform and the
beginning of the real-life pilot operation. During 15 months (May 2010-August 2011) the
pilots were used by the test users under realistic conditions - older adults in their homes;
the professional care-givers in their work tasks, performing their daily work to care for the
elderly; the informal care-givers/family, also in their everyday activities to care for the
seniors. The services were first tested in a smaller scale, with a few end-users at three of the
pilot sites for a period of 3-4 months, in order to identify if any major problems exist before
the large scale testing with all users during the rest of the testing period. Small scale pilots
were carried out in all of the regions, except in the region of Trikala, with 2-3 home
installations in each of the regions.
Since the launch of the services, in three of the regions demo-rooms have been installed and
in the fourth region the system was installed in the home of one of the formal care-givers.
The demo-rooms existed in addition to the home installations and had the following goals:
Demonstration of the services to potential test participants and their relatives - they
were able to see, and experience the system before deciding to join the controlled study
and were convinced that it is very user friendly and also aesthetically acceptable
In these demo rooms, the formal care-givers were able to try in reality the system and
provide final feedback to technical partners for usability and functionality and
suggestions for improvement
Potential end-users were introduced to the services and training was provided to them
Personnel from care-giver organisations gained hands-on experience with the services
and became more confident in usage of the system and learnt how to report technical
problems
