SBIR-STTR Award

A growing priority for Post-battle Wellness Management (PBWM) is the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) suffered during combat or related military operations. Due to the increased use of improvised explosive devices in current warfare, Veteran’s Administration (VA) healthcare providers are seeing a dramatic rise in TBI cases. The growing concern of TBI cases is highlighted in statistics from a Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center’s report that cited 62% of patients screened between July and November of 2003 were identified as having sustained a brain injury. This increase in TBI is a serious emerging Post-battle health issue for returning veterans, their families and the VA Healthcare system. In addition, such injuries are not confined to combat or military service related injuries. Approximately 2 million Americans experience TBI each year, and an estimated 5.3 million Americans are living with long-term, severe disabilities as a result of brain injury. To help address this growing problem of TBI cases, Red Wing Technologies proposes to research and develop a non-invasive intelligent system that will actively assist veterans and other patients with TBI in their recovery.

Keywords:
Wireless Sensors, Activity Monitoring, Expert Systems, Traumatic Brain Injury

Current economic conditions and an aging population are increasing the strain on the Medicaid program, which is the main funding source for long-term skilled nursing care. In 2008, Medicaid spending for long-term care was $99.9 billion and growing at a rate of 8.6% annually. Given that the population of persons over 65 years of age is expected to grow from 35 million in the year 2000 to 53 million in the year 2020 and over 80 million by the year 2050 [2] alternative methods to long-term care must be found. The issue of aging is even more acute for the Veterans Administration as 39.4 percent of the nation's veteran population is over the age of 65, compared with 12 percent of the general population [3]. Given these demographic trends for aging and the high costs associated with skilled nursing care alternative approaches to long-term care must be adopted. To help address this issue of long-term care costs, Healthsense proposes an extension of the original Phase II research to deploy wellness monitoring and assistive technologies to reduce the progression of older veterans into skilled nursing facilities. The Healthsense® eNeighbor® system, developed in part with funding from the National Institute of Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provides real-time wellness monitoring and assistive prompts that enable older veterans to remain in their homes longer or to transition from Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) to Home and Community Based Care. The eNeighbor System notifies caregivers when a significant change in routine indicates a potential problem and provides them with insight and information to more accurately tailor or prioritize care plans. The eNeighbor system also provides assistive prompts that help the older adult complete activities of daily living more independently. The overall technical objective for the project is to slow the progression of the older adult to the next level of care. The primary goals are: • Enabling the older adult to remain as independent as possible and enjoy a higher quality of life • Assisting care providers in managing the transition points between levels of care • Providing family members with assurance that adverse events are detected and responded to as quickly as possible • Compiling evidence that payers (either private or public) incur less costs by slowing the progression thru the care continuum.

Keywords:
Wellness monitoring, Assistive Technology, Telehealth, Independent Living