The proposed product to be developed will be an inexpensive system to monitor activities of persons who must, or who prefer to live alone, and to alert a responsible individual on a timely basis of potential medical emergency situations which are indicated based on this activity or lack of activity. An expert system will monitor the activity levels as well as simple user inputs such as codes for everything is all right, leaving the house for awhile, returning from trip, etc. It will also monitor and include telephone activity inputs as an implication of normal activity. When the expert system determines abnormal activity levels it will generate a telephone call to a responsible individual (sponsor). Such a system is sign)ficant in that (1) it can relieve overcrowding of nursing homes, (2) it will allow older people to maintain their independence and also to be assured of receiving proper attention when it is needed. This proposal specifically addresses the Department of Agriculture SBIR topic 8.6, Rural and Community Development in the area of health care. Such a system will especially benefit rural areas where the availability of emergency health care monitoring is limited and expensive when it is available.Applications:Application for the proposed research is for use in rural health care monitoring programs such as are currently administered by the states and counties to low income individuals such as social security recipients. The proposed system can be easily mod)fied to allow the transmitting of routine vital signs and answers to standard questions which are used to determine if further health care by doctors and hospitals is necessary. For rural health care it can make medical attention much more accessible by providing frequent indirect contact between a medical person and a patient.
