A new monitoring system, called REMi, can monitor movement and vital signs of aged care residents while they sleep.
Melbourne-based company Sleeptite has designed a new smart monitoring system called REMi, designed to help aged care providers keep a close, non-intrusive, look at their resident’s wellbeing while they sleep.
The new technology, designed in association with RMIT University, is aimed at aged care facilities, with the goal of enabling staff to remotely monitor aged residents during the night.
The REMi system is composed of three basic parts:
- Flexible sensors integrated into a medical grade mattress cover,
- A backend platform that analyses the data and
- A front-end user interface, which provides users with insights about the health of the aged resident.
The system provides alerts when any critical event occurs, such as if a person falls off the bed, or is at risk of falling. “REMi is unique to the market on many fronts. The world-first flexible and stretchable sensors that are embedded in materials sitting external to the human body allow us to non-invasively monitor the presence, posture and position of a resident on the mattress without the use of cameras or any other invasive, removeable or avoidable technologies,” Sleeptite CEO, Cameron van den Dungen told Medical Forum.
What can REMi do?
With the REMi system, staff from an aged care facility can instantly learn if a resident have fallen from their bed or if they are in an odd position. “REMi is currently able to detect not only the presence or absence of a person in bed but vital information about their position on the mattress which allows carers to detect signs of abnormality or potential health risks, such as their state of sleep or distress, as well as providing valuable insights in the understanding or prevention of falls,” van den Dungen said.
According to van den Dungen, their REMi system will soon also be able to detect other important health parameters. “Further to this we are already proving, in our Sleeptite Test Facility, that REMi is able to monitor more health parameters including respiratory and heart rate information and these future developments will continue to be added into the technology as we commence further testing and field trials,” she added.
The next step for REMi is to find a niche outside aged care, in any setting where sleep monitoring might be necessary. “Whether this is branching further into healthcare or focusing on important areas of concern for defence departments or prisons, even in boarding schools we are excited to see where the technology will be taken as the sky is the limit,” van den Dungen told Medical Forum.