An Active Grid Infrastructure for Elderly Care

Abstract

We propose a technique in which elderly people can be monitored non-intrusively. The information is kept in an `active¿ health record which becomes alive when attention or action is necessary concerning the condition of the elderly person. The proposed system consists of three main components: a sensor/actor loop, sensor records and associated active services, and a Grid middleware platform. Information is captured in realtime within a collaborative health-care Grid. The Grid connects elderly people, caregivers and medical service providers in ways that reduce unnecessary calls on expensive medical services through an intermediate local service centre (which can be virtual) assisted with Internet communications and monitoring technologies. The proposal should support preventive health-care programmes for reducing the cost of caring for the elderly.