BLUETOOTH-ENABLED IN-HOME PATIENT MONITORING SYSTEM: EARLY DETECTION OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

As the baby boom generation is aging, more and more people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, early detection of which is shown to be vital and necessary for better medical treatments and prolonging life expectancies. In this article we propose a Bluetooth-enabled in-home patient monitoring system, facilitating early detection of Alzheimer's disease. We take advantage of short-range Bluetooth communications for in-home patient location tracking, and the location information can then be recorded in a local database. With knowledge of the movement pattern of a patient, a medical practitioner is more likely to be able to determine whether a target patient is developing Alzheimer's disease. We also conduct a feasibility study, and our study shows that the proposed in-home patient monitoring system is feasible and can be applied in practice. Our proposed e-healthcare solution is expected to facilitate medical treatments, improve the quality of life of senior people, and reduce healthcare costs.