Solving the problem of elderly health care and social isolation

We are tearing down the walls of the hospital to bring the medical facility for the elderly at the doorstep.

Project Summary: The idea was to solve the problem of social isolation in the elderly population by providing them with a medical check-up facility through a mobile van clinic. It will have an integrated smart medical device to capture their vitals like blood pressure, temperate, and heart rate and give their medical report in their language. We also added the facility of Virtual doctor consultation for those who need medical attention.

Design Challenge

How might we empower the community to engage with elderly seniors to address social isolation needs and promote independent living post-discharge from Alexandra Hospital?

Research

We began by starting the user research in and around Alexandra hospital areas (Queenstown MRT, Commonwealth area, and Mei-ling street in Singapore, for example). We also contacted Lions Befrienders, aSocial Service Agency in Singapore to arrange a meeting with the older people who come there regularly.

In the image: Observation of the surrounding of the elderly folks to cover the isolated elderly, people influencing their life directly and indirectly as well as their kin.

Ideation

In the Ideation phase, we came up with a variety of ideas and then started filtering them based on the feasibility and appropriateness of the target audience. This process was followed by a round of discussion on solution flow, our services, and features. We analyzed the blueprint of our service design.

Check the Idea poster for Mobile clinic made by the team.

Solution overview

Mobile Clinic at the doorstep.

We will be spreading service awareness with pamphlets distributed in the area. To ensure that this information reaches every house, volunteers will promote this information in the target area. Our solution, i.e. mobile clinic, will be sent to the community once a week afterwards. Interaction set up in the clinic will be designed in the form of a round table conference.

The purpose is to give a more comfortable atmosphere for the elderly so that they don’t feel that they are coming to the hospital.

1. The patients will come for their vital check-up, which is done by the nurses using the Integrated Smart Medical Device. This device then sends the information to the cloud, and it will be transferred to the translator application afterwards. This application translated the medical details of the elderly in their understandable language.
2. There is also a translator built in the application which enables accessible communication between nurses and the elderly.
3. The elderly volunteers will take the mobility constraint and other elderly homes after the check-up. In return, they will get a free medical check-up.

Final Product Features

1. Fingerprint for registration, retrieve medical records (check subsidy).

2. MCU(Microcontroller) based device like Smart Chair, for taking temperature, blood pressure, and pulses. Dispense their medication.

3. Have a chatbot for explaining a prescription diet and counselling and Remote video consultation by a doctor.

4. Entertainment like simple video games, round table chit chat, and TV shows to attract the elderly.

5. Space for advertisement — which would bring revenue

6. Community interaction is facilitated at the mobile clinic by engaging old folks who can help the mobility constraint elderly to reach home in return for a free consultation.

For a detailed overview, please contact: Shriya Shekhar

Other project members Keran J , Sharanya Menon , Teresa and Khaiang.