Sensors and wisdom for the elderly

At present, China is gradually entering an ageing society, and the ageing rate is unprecedented. However, in dealing with the problem of aging population, China has weak links such as inadequate system preparation, old-age protection and lagging services. A model called "intellectual care for the elderly" is carrying out a kind of erotic approach to traditional old-age care and has become a path to achieve a new mode of old-age care.

The challenge of "the old people have the support"

According to the latest statistics from the Department of Social Welfare and Philanthropy Promotion of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as of now, there are 162 million elderly people in China, accounting for 12.79% of the total population. Since 2009, China's aging population has entered a period of rapid development, and the elderly population will increase by an average of 8 million people each year to 9 million people. It is estimated that by 2020, the elderly population in China will reach 248 million, and the ageing level will reach 17%. By 2050, it will enter the stage of severe aging. At that time, the elderly population in China will reach 437 million, accounting for more than 30% of the total population. That is, one out of three or four people will have an elderly person.

The strengthening of such a large ageing society has triggered a series of social problems. According to Ren Jiping, a scholar who is engaged in relevant research, the situation of aging population in China is rather grim. The older population has a larger scale and the population aging is growing faster. In addition, there are still phenomena such as “not wealthy first” and “empty nester”. Therefore, the aging of the population poses challenges to us in terms of old-age security, medical security, and elderly care services.

The top challenge is the large supply gap in the market for elderly care services. Data from several large-scale surveys across the country show that about 32.5 million elderly people in China need different forms of long-term care. Relevant investigations also show that the demand for old-age care facilities in China is gradually increasing. However, the current facilities for providing service for the elderly are seriously inadequate, service items and services are incomplete, the quality of service personnel is uneven, and the quantity and quality of old-age services are far from meeting market needs, and are among the “short-term”. Short-term." According to the calculation of old-age beds, in accordance with the internationally accepted requirement of 5% of the elderly to enter institutional pension standards, China needs at least 8 million beds, but now there are only 2.5 million, and the gap is more than 5.5 million.

China's old-age care market is also facing imperfect status quo such as service models and medical care systems. With the increasing application of the Internet of Things in the medical field, it will become a breakthrough in the exploration of new medical models to resolve the conflicts and problems in the care of the elderly. In the field of medical care, the application of the Internet of Things is mainly used in the monitoring of human body and the measurement of physiological parameters. It can monitor various conditions of the human body and transmit data to various communication terminals. The subject of monitoring is not necessarily a patient but can be an ordinary person. Various sensors can transmit measurement data wirelessly to dedicated monitoring instruments or various communication terminals such as PCs, mobile phones, and PDAs. About 10 to 20 types of sensors can be deployed on the surface or inside the human body. It is estimated that investing one dollar in disease prevention can save tens or even hundreds of dollars in medical expenses in the future. The development of medical and nursing applications based on the Internet of Things has very good social and economic benefits.

With the growing concerns about health and safety issues in China, the demand for personal health monitoring for the elderly and children will continue to expand and become the “blue ocean” for the application of the Internet of Things in the medical field. The "China Children's Development Status Report" shows that accidental injury caused by unfavorable guardianship has become the first cause of death in children under 14 years of age in China. If each child achieves childcare costs of 200 yuan/year through sensor network technology, if 10% of children across the country adopt IoT monitoring technology, a market scale of 5 billion yuan will be generated. According to the “Research on Urban Home-based Care for the Aged in China”, the potential market size of elderly care and nursing services in Chinese cities during the “11th Five-Year Plan” period exceeds 70 billion yuan, and will increase to 130 billion yuan in 2010, if 10% of the market Using a sensor network for monitoring, the market size will reach 13 billion yuan.

"Exploring Wisdom"

The Chinese people pay attention to maintaining their natural years. Everyone hopes to live a happy and stable life in their later years. For relatives of the elderly, the life of the elderly at home is a major issue. The elderly live well. The whole family will be harmonious. The problem of the elderly has not been solved well, and the whole family will become incoherent. At the level of society as a whole, anyone will be old. Everyone will intentionally or unconsciously form an expectation for his old life. If the current problem of population aging is not resolved well, it will affect the whole society.

Today, for many busy children, taking care of the elderly in the home is indeed a big problem. With the launch of “Wisdom Pension Program” by Nanjing Sofitel and IBM in Nanjing, the first “intellectual pension” program using the Internet of Things technology has taken the lead in the pension facility in Gulou District of Nanjing, bringing meticulous attention to “empty nesters”. Care.

“The 'wisdom pension' is actually using the Internet of Things technology, through various types of sensors, so that the daily life of the elderly is in a remote monitoring state.” Cai Shengwen, technical director of NTU Sutford’s company responsible for the research and development of the project, introduced if the elderly people walk out of the house or fall. The ground safety sensor will immediately notify the medical staff or relatives of the elderly; the milk in the refrigerator will spill over, or the hot pot will be left unattended on the stove. The sensor in the refrigerator and kitchen will give an alarm. In response, it will automatically clean up and shut down the gas; the “smart toilet” will be able to check the urine of the elderly, measure blood pressure and weight, and let the toilet become a medical examination. The measured data will be sent directly to the elder health e-health file of the community health service center. In the event of a data anomaly, the intelligent system will automatically start telemedicine and if necessary, go to the door for health services.

According to reports, this "smart pension" can also provide entertainment content. For example, an entertainment sensor installed on the door can automatically play the owner's favorite music when the old man enters the door, and adjust the heating and lighting in due course. The most important thing is that “Smart Pension” can also install a GPS global positioning system on the elderly, and children no longer have to worry about the elderly going out and losing.

Some people worry: Will the "wise old age" model be too expensive and ordinary people can afford it? Cai Shengwen explained that “intellectual care for the elderly” is mainly realized through sensors and is carried around. For example, the GPS positioning system requires only a few hundred dollars. After an elderly person with a heart attack wears it, it can automatically alarm and locate if it is dangerous. There are also installed on the appliance, including the ground, refrigerators, toilets, etc., depending on how much the total cost of the sensor installation, you need to range from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, the public can choose according to their needs and financial resources.

Mei Yong, general manager of IBM China, told reporters that IBM had just signed the "Smart City" project with the Nanjing Municipal Government not long ago. The "Intelligent Care for the Elderly" project launched this time mainly wanted to realize the service model, technology model, and management model of the elderly. Great innovation: “If we combine the service model innovations of nursing home care for the elderly, home care for the elderly, and community care for the elderly, we must use the technology innovation of the Internet of Things, and coordinate the health care, civil administration, and other systems for the care of the elderly.”

Zhang Jianping, director of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee on Aging, believes that “mental care for the elderly” is in line with the future retirement service. With the implementation of this project, the government will also train a large number of service organizations to jointly cope with the many problems caused by aging through the purchase of services. problem.

“The 'intellectual care for the elderly' model is actually a kind of ** for traditional old-age care methods, and it involves many aspects such as nursing standards, pension policies, etc.” said Xu Zhihuai, vice president of South Sutford. At present, the project has been approved for approval by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Once it is implemented, it will be led by the relevant government departments and enterprises will work together to formulate the "new national standard" under the "Smart Pension" model.