Smart monitoring technology to transform quality of aged care

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Smart monitoring technology to transform quality of aged care

Non-invasive sensor technology that can monitor aged care residents in real-time will help prevent falls and improve quality of care.

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Electronic sensor technology aged care flexible sensors REMi

The world-first smart monitoring system, called REMi, uses stretchable electronics first developed by RMIT University researchers and involves medical grade mattress covers being lined with soft electronic sensors.

Collaboration between university researchers and local business

The technology can measure the presence, posture and position of aged care residents and is the result of a strong collaboration between RMIT researchers, Melbourne-based research and advanced manufacturing company Sleeptite and Sleepeezee Bedding Australia.

The technology was born out of a chance meeting between Cameron van den Dungen, founder of start-up mattress company Sleeptite, and Madhu Bhaskaran, an engineering professor at RMIT.

Van den Dungen had a dream of creating a bed for use in aged care to monitor sleep quality and comfort. Bhaskaran’s research team were developing flexible wafer-like electronic sensors. 

Advanced monitoring and care

Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, co-leader of the Functional Materials and Microsystems Group at RMIT said the technology will help ensure that optimum care can be provided for aged care residents.

“The overnight monitoring and data capture in real-time reduces the load on carers, can give peace of mind and empowers them to focus on interacting with the residents,” she said.

REMi has been designed to enable the aged care workforce to non-intrusively monitor residents during the night and receive alerts at critical moments such as if a resident falls or is at risk of falling.

Using the technology, carers can determine not only the presence or absence of a person in bed, but also vital information about their position on the mattress.

This allows them to detect signs of abnormality or potential health risks, such as their state of sleep or distress, as well as providing valuable insights in the understanding or prevention of falls.

REMi can provide macro-data to facility mangers ensuring that quality care can be benchmarked and easily monitored and that facilities can easily, accurately and scientifically provide evidence of quality care to health service managers, regulatory bodies, and families.

Sleeptite CEO Cameron van den Dungen said Australia had the chance to become a world leader in increasing both the quality of healthcare provided to its elderly and the quality of their lives, through technology.

“Technology like Sleeptite’s REMi not only supports the valuable care workers but enables them to provide greater care than they believe is possible,” van den Dungen said.

“REMi takes the data that we extract from the person, from the environment in an aged care bedroom – whether it’s at home or whether it’s in a facility – and sorts out what is valuable to the user that needs that information.

Whether it’s the carers wanting to know that whenever their attention is turned they have a safety net behind them monitoring all residents, or their loved ones wanting to feel reassured at all times, or a CEO, or a board making a decision based on benchmark of care or the standard of care in multiple sights.

Integrated sensing and data platform

REMi is a three-part system comprising flexible sensors integrated into a medical grade mattress cover, the backend platform that analyses the data and the front-end user interface delivering valuable insights for the aged care workforce.

Setting the REMi system apart from existing aged care monitoring devices are two world-first advances developed in Melbourne:

flexible and stretchable sensors that can monitor movement and vital signs when embedded in materials sitting external to the human body, developed by RMIT; and
the advanced manufacturing equipment and processes, developed by Sleepeezee Bedding Australia, required to take the sensors made in a laboratory environment and mass produce them at scale for use in the real world.

Out of the lab and into the world

Bhaskaran said the collaboration was a model for deep engagement between universities and industry.

“REMi shows the power of true partnership and the extraordinary results we can achieve through a collaboration built on mutual respect and clear, shared goals,” Bhaskaran said.

“We’ve gone from lab bench to commercialisation in just three years – solving myriad challenges along the way – to deliver smart home-grown tech that will be manufactured right here in Australia.

news-sleeptite-room

It is incredibly exciting to see the sensor we developed leaping out from our lab and into the world, to improve the care for some of our most vulnerable people.

Awards recognition

The collaborative partnership and REMi technology have received several awards:

Winner - 2022 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence - Best Digital Health/HealthTech
Winner - 2022 Information Across Care (ITAC) Awards- 'Excellence in Collaboration'
Winner - 2021 Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) Awards - 'Best Collaboration'

Next steps

Further testing is already proving that the technology is also able to monitor more health parameters including respiratory and heart rate readings.

User experience mapping and initial trials have been insightful with developments currently being added to the ongoing field trials in aged care homes.

Sleeptite received an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Commercialisation Fund to support the partners’ work towards commercialising the technology.

A world-first sleep disorder diagnosis and monitoring trial is also being conducted using the invisible sensor technology developed at RMIT University.

The trial is part of a new partnership between Melbourne-based research Sleeptite, RMIT and Flinders University in which researchers are investigating REMI’s capability as a validation tool for sleep disorders.

The development of REMi was supported by an Australian Government Cooperative Research Centres – Project (CRC-P) grant and an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Commercialisation Fund.

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aboriginal flag

torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information