U.C., Maple Knoll develop smart house
- Technology helps seniors stay independent longer
- Innovations include robots%2C sensors%2C human simulator
A partnership between the University of Cincinnati and Maple Knoll Village has developed technology that will help seniors remain independent longer.
That technology has been incorporated into the Innovation Collaboratory House at Maple Knoll, which was dedicated in a ceremony that brought a standing-room crowd of more than 100 students, administrators, residents and legislators to the Springdale campus June 26.
The villa, used for health care training and research, includes innovations such as:
• a system to detect when the resident falls, using a Microsoft X-Box Kinect video game system;
• exoskeleton technology to help with sitting and standing; and
• sensors that monitor opening and closing of things like refrigerators and medication dispensers.
These innovations were demonstrated during walk-through tours of the villa, and included robots with screens to allow real-time communication, and an interactive mannequin named Annie, which is used for student training.
Researchers hope to develop cost-effective applications of the technology, to allow seniors to use these advances in their homes, as well as at care facilities such as Maple Knoll Village.
"This is a training environment for the future of health care," Steve Wilson, chairman of the board for Maple Knoll Communities, said in introducing a panel of speakers that included representatives of Maple Knoll, U.C. and the Ohio Senate.
"This is where technology is tested and implemented."
Maple Knoll CEO Jim Formal explained the country's confrontation of a major social issue.
"There has been an explosion of aging population," Formal said. "We have 250,000 people turning 65 every month, and that will accelerate."
Ohio ranks sixth in the nation in the size of this age population, he said, calling the trend a silver tsunami.
"Technology can help us deal with this silver tsunami," Formal said. "It will allow our senior citizens to age in place as long as possible.
"We need to make institutional care the venue of last resort."
U.C. College of Nursing Dean Greer Glazer agreed that research can't be done exclusively in acute care settings.
"It's not where we live," she said.
"This provides not just a setting for learning, but also a setting for innovation for issues we are facing in health care," Glazer said of the Collaboratory House, adding that it will help students to graduate with the skills to think critically and innovate.
Teik Lim, dean of the U.C. College of Engineering and Applied Science, said the research and learning that developed the Collaboratory House is a model for the future.
"We will help our elderly to walk to heaven," he said of the technology that assists seniors with physical tasks. "We provide the underlying technology.
"By working with seniors, students learn how to listen to the residents, to find a solution and integrate new capabilities," he said, "to make things to bring joy to living."
Andrew Filak, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the U.C. College of Medicine, is also a doctor of family medicine.
"This collaboration is vitally important in coping with changes," Filak said, referring to virtual capabilities such as Skype and Facetime, as well as monitoring devices that provide digital information from the patient to the healthcare provider.
"The future of health care is being developed right here," he said.
Dan Humpert, director of the center for robotics research at UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science, said seniors' quality of life drove the project.
"The long term goal is to satisfy the desires of the elderly to stay in their homes improving their quality of life, keeping them safe and secure in their home, ensuring that they take their medications, removing the chaos from the environment, and increasing the documentation and standardization of daily tasks while decreasing the cost of doing this to the individual, state and federal government."
"This should be a game changer in the current in-home health care environment," he said. "This is a creative and innovative solution to a potential serious situation down the road where there are not enough medical professionals and in-home health care professionals to take care of the aging baby boom generation."
He said the technology is flexible and can be scaled to meet needs of individuals or institutional settings such as nursing homes.
The cost will fluctuate depending on the need, according to Debi Sampsel, chief officer of innovation and entrepreneurship at the U.C. College of Nursing.
"The goal of the inventions are to develop them in such a way that one can purchase them, at an affordable cost, off the shelf at stores like Target, Walmart, or Walgreens," Sampsel said, adding that more sophisticated technology would be placed in institutional settings that serve clusters of seniors.
Jerry Pietch is a 19-year resident of Maple Knoll Village. He and his wife, Elaine, have seen many changes at the campus.
"All of this focuses on improving our lifestyle," he said. And many are technology-driven.
"You are sowing seeds for these residents and future ones," he said, citing safety, health care, and communication.
"I look forward to using it.
"The use of technology is a giant step that will continue to change health care as we know it," Pietch said. "I want to thank you, as a user."
Two local legislators also attended the dedication.
State Sen. Eric Kearney, D-9th District, commended the collaboration between Maple Knoll and U.C.
"We will support you at the Statehouse level."
Sen. Bill Seitz, R-8th District, pointed to good news, and bad news.
"The good news is people are living longer," he said. "The bad news is, people are living longer.
"And meeting the challenges of good news/bad news requires collaboration," he said of the technology that helps seniors live longer, better.
He cited technology such as fall sensors, which would have helped several of his own family members.
"Is it important?" he asked. "You bet.
"It helps us so the good news outweighs the bad."