Intelligent home risk based monitoring solutions that enable post-acute care surveillance.

Abstract

The advancing age of the baby boomer, coupled with increased life spans, has led to a significant increase in the number of senior citizens in many countries. These populations of citizens are projected to significantly impact current and future healthcare resources. Providing care for this population in the acute care setting is only one aspect of the total care package that needs to be addressed. For those having been in the acute care setting for either medical treatment or following procedural-based therapies, the discharge to home often provides an opportunity to continue the post acute care monitoring to ensure that complications or readmissions do not occur. Monitoring care and providing guidance and medical management at home will offer patients, families, facilities and providers with the opportunity to ensure recovery and return to a healthy steady state. To explore this issue further, the following examines the possibilities for monitoring postoperative clinical functions in the context of total knee and/or total hip arthroplasty. Specifically, this research in progress serves to proffer a conceptual model that can then guide a randomised clinical trial to test the presented hypotheses and model.