Silverlink: Developing an international smart and connected home monitoring system for senior care

Abstract

Due to increased longevity, there has been a significant growth in the aging population world over. Caring for this burgeoning class has become a pressing challenge faced by many developed and emerging countries, including the US (the aging baby boomer) and China (the reverse 4-2-1 family pyramid due to one child policy). Despite failing health, most senior citizens prefer to live independently at home and hence the focus of current healthcare technologies has shifted from traditional clinical care to “at-home” care for the senior citizens. We propose to develop SilverLink, a system that is unique in its smart and connected technologies and will offer: (1) affordable and non-invasive home-based mobile health technologies for monitoring health-related motion and daily activities; (2) advanced mobile health analytics algorithms for fall detection, health status progression monitoring, and health anomaly detection and alert; and (3) a comprehensive health activity portal for reporting user activity and health status and for engaging family members. This review discusses the SilverLink system in detail along with some of the technical challenges faced during the development of this system and future opportunities.