Ascom launches Activity Monitoring, an innovative software solution for long-term care homes

Ascom Activity Monitoring is an end-to-end solution for long-term care that monitor and predict a deterioration in the health of residents. Built on top of Ascom SmartSense, this state-of-the-art and fully interoperable software allows the integration of external sensors and monitors movements and wander behavior, detects potential falls, and monitors typical sleep patterns, etc. of long-term care home residents. Active Monitoring also optimizes workflow efficiency for the caregivers while preserving residents' lifestyle, privacy and safety.

The Ascom Activity Monitoring solution is part of the company's strategy to address the growing market for smart solutions in the long-term care industry. According to studies by the United Nations, the number of people worldwide aged 65 and older is expected to rise to 1.5 billion by 2050, compared to 702 million in 20191. The number of people aged 80 years or older is expected to grow even faster.

What is the Ascom Activity Monitoring solution? 
With the Activity Monitoring solution, Ascom provides an end-to-end solution for long-term care. The Ascom SmartSense algorithm converts incoming sensor data into statuses and warnings as needed and enables caregivers to have a better and continuous health update of the resident, predict a health deterioration, and rapidly modify the care provided to prevent possible consequences. When paired with Ofélia or Unite, alarms can be customized to each resident's needs and sent to the right person, to the right device, and at the right time. Since the Ascom Activity Monitoring system is based on open integration infrastructure, third-party sensors, smart cameras, or other smart sensors can be easy integrated. 
Ascom SmartSense meets regional and national regulatory criteria. 

How does it work? 
A variety of sensors are positioned thoughtfully across the residents' rooms. An infrared ceiling detector can track movement, a door detector senses wandering, and a mattress detector looks for potential falls. Caregivers may easily integrate the sensors that are most appropriate for a resident's needs and confirm the resident's condition by consolidating data from multiple sources and presenting an overview of the resident on a single dashboard. Dashboards are available to caregivers on a variety of devices, such as professional smartphones like Myco 4 and ward computers.

Providing added value to residents and caregivers 
By observing residents' overall lifestyle patterns, caregivers can enhance the patient's experience in terms of comfort, dignity preservation, and maintaining the resident's autonomy and privacy. Caregivers can also predict how much staff and equipment will be needed, which improves timeliness and reduces costs. It is also possible to detect a deterioration in a resident's health at an early stage if their lifestyle deviates from the norm. Caregivers are also able to limit the number of rounds (particularly when patients are resting and do not want to be disturbed) and concentrate on the residents who need it the most at any given time, all thanks to the global view of the various statuses of residents on the ward in real-time (virtual round). 

The introduction of the Ascom Activity Monitoring solution addresses the growing market demand for smart solutions in the long-term care and home care industry in view of the increasing number of residents that are becoming more and more dependent, the shortage of staff, and cost-efficient budgets. The Ascom Activity Monitoring solution enhances outcomes through the digitization of care. 

1 https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WorldPopulationAgeing2019-Highlights.pdf, Page 5, Table 1