Where care: A patient localization system for nursing homes
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Accepted Version
Date
2024-10-25
Authors
Ronan, Isabel
Tabirca, Sabin
Murphy, David
Cornally, Nicola
Saab, Mohamad
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Published Version
Abstract
As the world's population continues to increase rapidly, there is a growing demand for healthcare services. Nursing homes are becoming more and more populated; the demands placed on care staff continue to grow exponentially. New approaches to care, such as palliative techniques, need to be considered to ensure residents are cared for in years to come. Localization can be used to track changes in behaviour and provide new insights into residents' palliative needs. Low-cost, reliable systems can be developed to help nurses monitor resident locations within nursing homes. This paper proposes a Bluetooth Low Energy localization system called “Where Care”. The proposed system uses smartphones and wireless Bluetooth beacons to localize residents in a test facility. A novel beacon placement technique and localization algorithm are used to provide real-time resident locations. Data collected is displayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) for ease of use. Heat maps and graphs are available in the GUI to allow care staff to make location predictions based on historical resident data. Nurses can also configure a notification service within the system interface to ensure resident safety. The system is implemented and tested in an experimental university space. Results show that the “Where Care” tool provides sufficiently accurate real-time localization measurements and data summaries. Overall, feedback indicates that “Where Care” is a useful tool with the potential for future use in busy, over-burdened nursing homes.
Description
Keywords
Localization , Bluetooth low energy , Smartphones , Neural network
Citation
Ronan, I., Tabirca, S., Murphy, D., Cornally, N. and Saab, M. (2024) 'Where care: A patient localization system for nursing homes', 2024 IEEE 21st International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS), Seoul, Republic of Korea, 23-25 September 2024, pp. 387-393. https://doi.org/10.1109/MASS62177.2024.00058