Lessons Learned from a Long-Running Assistive System for Geriatric Care

Abstract

Pervasive healthcare aims for a decentralized, preventive, and assistive approach to healthcare. Recognizing their merits, many authors have proposed systems based on this approach; some include theoretical proposals and architectural designs, while others have implemented real working systems. Most systems are tested in controlled laboratory conditions, and just a few of them in real-setting scenarios. For three years now, we have been using a system that assists caregivers in performing their duties at a geriatric residence. In this paper, we report the lessons learned with this system, during a period spanning the requirements gathering, design, implementation, maintenance, update and continuous running phases. This report tries to fill a void in the literature for real-life experiences that can be taken into account when designing and implementing pervasive healthcare systems to be installed in real settings.