BEDMOND
There is considerable interest in the ability to diagnose dementia of the Alzheimer type in the earliest possible stage of the disease. It is known that people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer. Its first indicators are subtly manifested in patients’ daily behaviour patterns. Thus, an interest emerged for developing a technological system that can record and code behavioural changes occurring in the daily life of elderly persons applying low level sensors in the home. And this is, indeed, BEDMOND scope: an ICT-based system for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases on the basis of data assessment with health professional criteria. It addresses a system that supports the decision making process for the doctor for an early diagnosis, automating the information process related, first, to the recognition and modelling of the daily activity performed by the elder while being at home and, then, to the interpretation of deviations and behavioural changes detected. Technology in use is based on standards and open source, and interoperability, modularity and scalability criteria. User involvement is tackled under a user-centric iterative process for design and development, ending with field trials for real testing in real environment.
