Smart Health & Human Factors
Our Technology
Take an in-depth look at some of the smart health and human factors technology we've developed at HCESC. Please contact us if you are interested in obtaining this technology or working with us to design something new.
Voice-Activated Home Monitoring for Post-Operative Patient Care
Home is the best place for recovery. A new voice-activated home monitoring system is being developed as an extension of the healthcare service from hospitals to home for effective post-operative recovery. It consists of a take-home health kit, where each component is tailored to each patient's specific condition. Each kit includes personalized health sensors and an assistive device such as Amazon Alexa, which is programmed to instruct the patient at designated times for routine data collection.
The assistive device serves as the eyes and ears of this home care system, where patients can interactively follow the systematic instructions to have their health monitored while recovering in the comfort of their own home, thereby creating an effective bridge between providers and patients.
Haptic Enabled Home Therapy System for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation
Stroke is the leading cause of disability among older adults in the United States. More than 800,000 strokes occur each year. Funded by the National Science Foundation, we are developing a new home therapy system for stroke patient rehabilitation. This system has three main components:
- A hardware and virtual reality software platform with a haptic assistance system, developed specifically for improving skills in daily living
- A remote access interface for a therapist to monitor and modify the patient's therapy regimen
- A self-adjusting, patient-centric haptic system which can transform and adapt itself to the patient's level of effort, based on measurement of cognitive capabilities using. brain computer interface.
Smart & Connected Communities Initiative
There is an urgent need for improvement in healthcare delivery among communities in rural America. We are pioneering new networks which include three layers of interaction to get patients the care they need: a social network of friends and family; a community network of volunteer-run centers; and a hospital-based network in collaboration with OSF HealthCare-run community outposts.
Each participant in this connected community network project will be provided a condition-specific kit consisting of Internet of Things monitoring systems such as wearable sensors and an Amazon Echo. These sensors will monitor the participants in their home and give appropriate direction and assistance.