The Hong Kong Polytechnic College’s College of Nursing, along with a neighborhood telecommunications firm, has developed a brand new cell well being administration app for the aged.
HOW IT WORKS
Based mostly on a press launch, the stated app, which connects to a wearable well being monitoring machine, alerts a nurse or carer as soon as it detects abnormalities in an aged consumer’s vitals parameter, equivalent to blood stress or blood glucose degree, enabling early intervention.
It additionally options 24/7 nurse interplay the place a consumer can simply begin a video name with their nurse anytime to hunt help or to judge their psychological and bodily situation.
The cell well being app has been examined by round 200 senior members coping with power circumstances from 5 aged care centres of the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service.
Findings from the pilot research confirmed that inside three to 6 months of use, there was a big improve in self-efficacy, a lower within the degree of melancholy and the usage of medical providers, and an enchancment within the high quality of lifetime of the members. Unplanned GP visits additionally went down by 72% following three months of use of the app.
WHY IT MATTERS
Hong Kong’s inhabitants is quick ageing. In 2021, senior individuals aged 65 and above made up 20% of the town’s complete inhabitants, rising from simply 13% a decade earlier. The median age of the inhabitants is 46.3, leaping from 41.7 in 2011. The WHO beforehand forecasted that 4 in 10 Hong Kong individuals can be 65 and above by 2050.
This pattern is anticipated to impression public healthcare because it implies extra individuals can be looking for care for his or her power circumstances. Hospital Authority estimated that the variety of sufferers with power ailments will attain three million by 2039.
An strategy combining nursing help with digital know-how has the potential to alleviate stress attributable to such an increase in demand for public medical providers, famous PolyU College of Nursing Assistant Professor Dr Ankers Wong, who additionally led the research on the cell well being app.
Their analysis staff is now trying so as to add extra capabilities to the app, equivalent to AI and personalised content material, to persuade aged customers to proceed utilizing the app.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Outdoors Asia, Telstra Well being in Australia launched final yr a cell app for residential aged care known as CareKeeper. The cloud-based app allows workers to view, seize, and doc care from a resident’s aspect in actual time by way of a cell machine.
