Remote home monitoring of health status of the elderly.

The hypothesis that functional health status amongst the elderly can be accurately determined remotely by continuously monitoring relatively simple parameters that measure the interaction between the participant and his or her environment was examined. Changes in such simple measures as mobility, sleep patterns, utilization of cooking, washing, and toilet facilities can identify changes in functional health status and prompt appropriate, timely, and cost-effective intervention of medical and community-based services to help reduce morbidity and maintain an independent, high quality of life. We discuss the design and implementation of a multidisciplinary research project and an associated field trial to unobtrusively monitor and correlate interaction with the home environment and functional health status.