Smarter, safer home technology

The aim of the technology is to help older people and those with disabilities live safely and independently, enabling carers and families to stay in the workforce while still managing to keep a safe eye on their loved ones at home.

CSIRO, Global Community Resourcing and Bromilow are hoping the Smarter Safer Home  technology will be rolled out to hundreds of more homes this year, through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Commonwealth Home Support Programs and the Queensland government.

Dr Eleanor Horton is a beneficiary of the technology and an advocate for its rollout to help clients and carers, especially working carers.

A senior lecturer in nursing at Sunshine Coast University, Dr Horton has reportedly been able to continue her teaching and research only because she and Bromilow staff are able to use the CSIRO technology, to monitor and maintain the health and safety of her husband Patrick who lives at home after a stroke.

The Smarter Safer Home care support system provides alerts and triage enabling clinicians and healthcare workers to work with Dr Horton and her husband.

In their broadband connected Smarter Safer Home, the CSIRO network has sensors reporting on the physical environment, such as heat in the kitchen and bathroom, and movement inside and outside the house. This information is processed to provide a picture of what might be happening inside the house, enabling any decline in movement patterns to be recognised in order to help identify slips and falls.

The sensors also assist with social inclusion and psychological wellbeing by connecting with video conferencing systems enabling Patrick to talk to his wife. They collect disease specific health information, using biomedical devices that transmit data to Bromilow’s remote server for examination and follow up by its clinicians and health care workers.

“As an expert in aged and nursing care and workforce issues, and most importantly as a working carer benefiting from this technology, I’d like to see this care available to the hundreds of thousands of Australians with a disability or care need who can be assisted to remain safe and independent in their home,” Dr Horton says.

Dr David Hansen, chief executive of the Australian e-Health Research Centre at CSIRO, which has been supervising the rollout, says: “We’ve utilised our research expertise in health and biomedical engineering, sensor networking, psychology, perception and user interface design and interaction to provide a safe and secure care environment in the home.”

According to Paul Hawting, chief executive of Bromilow Home Support Services, which has trialled the technology utilising their clinicians and home care workers, the new home care sensor technology has the potential to maximise assistance with the efficient use of clinical and care workers.

The team are now seeking funding for the sensor technology's widespread availability.

Anne Livingstone, research and development lead global community resourcing, who facilitated the technology trials and use, claims the technology has the potential to provide “huge savings” to governments compared to hospital and aged care expenditure, and to enable them to meet the care needs of a growing, ageing population in the home environment.

Find out more about the Smarter Safer Homes sensor technology.