Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, co-leader of the Functional Materials and Microsystems Group at RMIT said the technology will help ensure that optimum care can be provided for aged care residents.
“The overnight monitoring and data capture in real-time reduces the load on carers, can give peace of mind and empowers them to focus on interacting with the residents,” she said.
REMi has been designed to enable the aged care workforce to non-intrusively monitor residents during the night and receive alerts at critical moments such as if a resident falls or is at risk of falling.
Using the technology, carers can determine not only the presence or absence of a person in bed, but also vital information about their position on the mattress.
This allows them to detect signs of abnormality or potential health risks, such as their state of sleep or distress, as well as providing valuable insights in the understanding or prevention of falls.
REMi can provide macro-data to facility mangers ensuring that quality care can be benchmarked and easily monitored and that facilities can easily, accurately and scientifically provide evidence of quality care to health service managers, regulatory bodies, and families.
Sleeptite CEO Cameron van den Dungen said Australia had the chance to become a world leader in increasing both the quality of healthcare provided to its elderly and the quality of their lives, through technology.
“Technology like Sleeptite’s REMi not only supports the valuable care workers but enables them to provide greater care than they believe is possible,” van den Dungen said.
“REMi takes the data that we extract from the person, from the environment in an aged care bedroom – whether it’s at home or whether it’s in a facility – and sorts out what is valuable to the user that needs that information.
Whether it’s the carers wanting to know that whenever their attention is turned they have a safety net behind them monitoring all residents, or their loved ones wanting to feel reassured at all times, or a CEO, or a board making a decision based on benchmark of care or the standard of care in multiple sights.
