It’s a smartphone with either FaceTime or Google Duo.
By eliminating travel time to and from doctors’ offices, along with time-wasting inefficiencies once patients get there, telemedicine has been a great convenience for seniors during the pandemic. And, as I wrote earlier, it will continue to be for many years to come.
Its one drawback has been its inability to measure blood pressure, temperature, pulse and heart and respiration rates – all important diagnostic data – remotely.
But now there’s an app for that.
University of Washington researchers have developed a way for smartphone or computer cameras to measure pulse and respiration rate from real-time video images of a patient’s face.
Using machine learning, the system seeks out areas in a video frame with physiological features that indicate changing blood flow and adjusts for different skin tones, lighting conditions, and backgrounds. By doing this over time, it can focus on that area and keep a record of pulse and respiration rate.
And because the system records the data on the device instead of storing it in the Cloud, it protects patient privacy.
The system “provides new opportunities for remote patient care and telemedicine,” says Professor Shewak Patel. “This could include self-care, follow-up care or triage, particularly when someone doesn’t have convenient access to a clinic.”
“Every person is different,” lead researcher Xin Liu noted, “ so this system needs to be able to quickly adapt to each person’s unique physiological signature.”
We at Senior Insights couldn’t agree more.
While many senior care agencies base their care recommendations strictly on the capabilities they offer, we base ours on the fact that every person is different.
So before we recommend any kind of coordinated care management plan, we diagnose. Our thorough three-part needs assessment goes beyond each client’s physiological signature to determine their mental, functional, cognitive, and social signatures as well. It also includes ascertaining what clients’ and family caregivers’ specific values, needs and desires are, so we can honor those as well.
And our monthly Registered Nurse assessments go way beyond just taking vital signs and are more like mini-needs assessments.
Please contact us to learn more about senior care that continually adapts to your unique needs, however they may change over time.