Dadong Wan
CHI 2005 Workshop on HCI Challenges in Health Assessment
April 4, 2005
Portland, Oregon
Abstract: Today, the assessment and the detection of these changes are done through episodic, out-of-context clinic visits. As medical professionals know, when taken out of their familiar surroundings, elderly individuals may behave quite differently, describing symptoms differently than they normally would when they were at home experiencing them. Additional stress related to a medical exam and a trip to the hospital can also distort the result and lead to less reliable evaluations. With the emergence of ubiquitous sensors, advances in always-on wireless networks and the availability of miniaturized embedded and wearable devices, continuous health monitoring at home becomes increasingly possible. Besides serving as an emergency tool, this capability allows the observation of the elderly behavior over long periods of time. It reveals subtle trends, personal habits and unusual events, and thus offers much more accurate insights into the individual’s health and well-being.