A smart bed platform for monitoring & Ulcer prevention

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to develop a software-hardware platform that addresses one of the most costly, acute health conditions, pressure ulcers - or bed sores. Caring for pressure ulcers is extremely costly, increases the length of hospital stays and is very labor intensive. The proposed platform collects information from various sensors incorporated into the bed, analyzes the data to create a time-stamped, whole-body pressure distribution map, and commands the bed's actuators to periodically adjust its surface profile to redistribute pressure over the entire body. These capabilities are combined to form a cognitive support system, that augments the ability of a care giver, allowing them to provide better care to more patients in less time. For proof of concept, we have implemented algorithms and architectures that cover four key aspects of this platform: 1) data collection, 2) modeling & profiling, 3) machine learning, and 4) acting.