Background: There are a lot of possibilities how to monitor the patient using wireless technologies and how to initiate the appropriate action in life-threatening situations. The paper focuses on those issues. The overview of basic principles and outline of significant advantages and disadvantages of the methods are presented.
Objectives: The main aim of these solutions is to ensure safety of the elderly and impaired people in their everyday life, and especially, to enable the possibility to stay in their natural environment (home, family, etc.) instead of institutionalizing them.
Methods: Two solutions for monitoring and providing better life quality conditions are presented in more detail. The specific solution for monitoring vital signs and classifying urgent states using telemedical system - the Intelligent Primer Nurse application - is presented in detail. The smart system combining the telemedical approach and home TV computer - Home Brain system - is described.
Results: Both solutions have been tested in real use and under different conditions. The Intelligent Primer Nurse system has been tested during long term vital signs monitoring including several activities - walking, running and idle standing. The Home Brain system has been evaluated during a pilot study with a group of elderly in their real life. The user experiences have been investigated by a moderated discussion.
Conclusions: Finally, we discuss the future development in this domain.