Project Precise: Fall prevention must be targeted – and now you can
Did you know that as many as one in three seniors fall in their own home every year? That is very annoying for themselves in the first place. But it also places a considerable burden on the organization and financing of care. The advice is to avoid this as much as possible. You focus on prevention by training seniors so that they retain their muscle strength and balance as much and for as long as possible.
Project Precise has developed a smart tool that allows you to get started with fall prevention. The tool allows a healthcare professional or caregiver to screen an elderly person. Using algorithms, the tool can then accurately predict the risk of a fall and propose an appropriate intervention. That screening and that intervention form the ‘DigiRehab’ platform.
Project ALPHA: Tool monitors proteins and gives advice
How can you keep taking enough amino acids? Because those acids are crucial for maintaining muscle strength and mass, even in the elderly. You cannot do without proteins. Proteins are found in all kinds of animal products such as meat and eggs. But they can also be found in vegetable products such as meat substitutes, nuts, beans and dairy. It is precisely these products that people eat less as they get older, while they actually need more of them. The aging body responds less well to the stimulus that protein gives to the muscles.
Project Alpha is building an app that helps dietitians advise clients. The app can compare a person’s intake of amino acids against the guidelines and comes up with suggestions to make up for deficiencies. The project will run until December 2022.
Project Aid2BeWell: A robot that responds to your facial expression
People are getting older and the demand for care continues to grow. How can you offer support to the elderly in addition to regular care? And can you influence the state of mind in this?
In the Aid2BeWell project, researchers are developing a smart robot. This social robot gives advice to live (even) healthier. Do you want to do physical exercises? To make a walk? Do a short memory workout? The robot also learns to recognize facial expressions, because timing is important. The trick is that the robot gives the right advice at the right time. The aim of this project: to provide extra support in addition to regular care.
Project Demicare: Shoe sole supports caregiver in dementia care
How can you relieve informal carers who care for someone with dementia? And how do you use technology for this? The Demicare app supports informal carers in caring for their loved ones.
The app, which is a follow-up to the Success project, provides advice and tips to caregivers, among other things. To ensure that the app is personalized, informal caregivers first have to answer some questions about health (behavioural and physical symptoms), the network, daily life (care activities, number of contact moments) and the background of the informal caregiver (‘were you already familiar with dementia?’). The app then knows which information is really relevant for the client and the caregiver.
In addition to the app, Demicare also uses sensors. For example, a smartwatch can measure someone’s heart rate, which can help a caregiver to understand and explain the behavior of the moment in question. But there is also a smart shoe sole available with sensors that measures a person’s walking speed and can say something about changes in thinking ability based on deviations. The aim of this project is to provide optimal person-oriented care to people with dementia and their network.
Project Hannah: Smart speaker Hannah helps break the silence
Many elderly people who have lost a partner or who have moved, lose their social network. A frequently heard phrase is ‘it has become so quiet around me’. This sentence is the inspiration for project Hannah, a smart speaker that connects seniors with each other.
You can place the speaker in your home and invite you to have a chat with someone who also has such a speaker at home. A prototype is currently being built that will be tested in practice. Speaker Hannah asks after every conversation if you want to rate it. When she sees that you have already spoken to Jan five times, Hannah asks if you want to speak to him again. The more you use the speaker, the better you can expand and manage your social network.
Knowing more?
Visit the ZonMw website to read more about these projects. Read more here.