Addressing the Deployment Challenges of Health Monitoring Devices for a Dementia Study

This paper presents the findings of a technological adoption assessment of health monitoring devices for a dementia study. The work was motivated by the need to monitor physical activity interventions in a study cohort of dementia patients living with caregiver support in the community. The system requirements were for a discrete and unobtrusive solution with activity level (energy expenditure) and heart rate monitoring. In addition to fulfilling system requirements, successful technology adoption requires careful consideration of practical challenges in deployment. The paper addresses these challenges - in particular, aspects relating to the servicing and maintenance of units over the study period and the access and synchronisation of data. Test data visualisations and data mining results for sustained, long-term data capture are provided.