The National Centre for Healthy Ageing

Client

The National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) is a partnership between Peninsula Health and Monash University, based on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Established in 2020, and supported by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the NCHA is a leading research centre working to transform the health and care of our ageing population through innovative health service models and technology.

As Australia’s leading integrated research, development and implementation hub focused on healthy ageing, the NCHA aims to create better-integrated health care models, promoting health and wellbeing across people’s lifespan and driving improvements in the way people seek out and access care.

The NCHA is focused on driving innovation and developing solutions to tackle the most pressing challenges affecting healthy ageing across the wider community, in hospitals and in residential aged care.

Opportunity

The NCHA were looking for a smart solution to help them significantly enhance patient care and research initiatives in their Smart Ward. The Smart Ward houses a range of digital technologies to help support patient care and clinical research and is located in a GEM (geriatric evaluation and management) ward that cares specifically for older people. Patients on these types of wards are at risk of experiencing deconditioning and functional decline due to not moving around physically as much as they would at home.

As such, the NCHA was looking for a way to accurately capture the amount of physical activity these patients do to help prevent deconditioning and functional decline and better understand the amount of time patients spend in proximity to other patients and staff members.

Existing solutions for measuring patients’ physical activity include wearable devices which can be time-consuming for staff, requiring manual intervention to extract the data (after being worn for a certain time to collecting data) and analyse the data. This means insights are often delayed or never surfaced to staff, limiting their clinical value. The NCHA wanted something that would work in real time, causing real change and effect within the ward for the patients and staff and to advance research for their aged patients.

Solution

The NCHA engaged the services of Outcomex to assist them in deploying a smart IoT solution: 365mesh HealthDeck & CareTrack solution which was developed specifically for/with the NCHA, is grounded in advanced edge AI technology.

By leveraging sensor technology, the solution will enhance patient tracking, improve operational efficiency, and support advanced research. Our platform collects real-time data through ceiling-mounted base stations, calculating angles and locations to build a clear, accurate picture of patient activity.

We will deploy sensor technology in the Smart Ward, enabling seamless data transmission and real-time tracking, giving NCHA the ability to:

• Monitor patient movements and interactions.
• Optimise staff allocation and workflow efficiency.
• Gain data-driven insights, enhancing research and patient care.

To monitor patient tracking, we will utilise CareTrack, 365mesh’s lightweight non-obtrusive wearable that is designed to attach to standard patient wristbands. It incorporates sensor technology for centimetre-level accuracy, an Inertial Measurement Unit for motion and orientation and advanced functions, such as gait speed measurement, step counting, movement patterns (or if not moving for a prolonged period of time), with automated alerts so staff are notified immediately to take appropriate care action. Additional advanced functions include staff interaction analysis (measuring time spent with patients to balance care and workloads, i.e. are more staff needed because certain patients require longer or prolonged care from staff), patient proximity monitoring (identifying when patients are alone or near others for safety and mental health support), and wandering and zone alerts (for when patients leave designated safe areas).

The live map feature provides real-time visibility into patients’ location and whereabouts – making it easier to track movement and spot risk as it happens.

From the ward, data flows securely into the 365mesh connectors and 365mesh private cloud before being delivered into our user-friendly platform (dashboard), HealthDeck (all of which is protected by enterprise-grade security) and gives staff and clinicians insight into patient care and management.

All of this data is available instantly on a user-friendly dashboard, providing nurses and clinicians with a holistic view of patient mobility patterns (and environment monitoring) so that they can make timely, informed decisions about care in real time. By working natively with Cisco Bluetooth tech and leveraging Cisco’s AI-enhanced RRM for reliable performance in hospital environments, clinicians can access all data and alerts instantly via the HealthDeck dashboard, empowering timely, informed decisions that improve patient outcomes. Together, CareTrack and Outcomex create a research-grade health analytics and real-time safety monitoring platform that not only supports current clinical trials but also establishes the foundation for future integration into everyday clinical care pathways.

“At the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, our focus is on translating research into safe, practical models of care. The HealthDeck and CareTrack solution gives our clinicians and researchers a secure, real-time view of patient mobility and activity that can inform timely interventions and new care pathways,” says Professor Velandai Srikanth, Director, National Centre for Healthy Ageing.

These data can be used to help prevent adverse events, hospital acquired complications, improving staff and patient workflows, improving patient mobility – all the long-term issues that can now be improved with this solution.  This technology can aid in ensuring accurate staff numbers for patients cared for (nurse-patient ratios) by monitoring various metrics, for example, identifying if a patient is wandering and where they are going, or how often they frequent the toilet.

“Our plan is to link the data from the Smart Ward data base with our NCHA Data Platform. By linking all of this data together means we can build up a much better picture of what happens to a patient throughout their journey in the hospital,” says A/Prof Christina Ekegren, Smart Ward Research Lead, at the National Centre for Healthy Ageing.

Through this collaboration, Outcomex, Cisco, and NCHA is creating one of Australia’s most connected Smart Ward environments, which will enable clinicians to access real-time data on patient movement, and activity levels, all within a secure, privacy-by-design architecture. The integration of smart sensors and connected systems is helping to create safer, more responsive environments that enhance independence and quality of life for residents. The program exemplifies how technology, thoughtfully applied, can empower healthcare professionals and enhance the experience of care.

Technologies used

• 365mesh Solutions
• Cisco technologies

Impact

Through this deployment, NCHA is achieving innovative, modern, end-to-end IoT solution transforming their healthcare environment, enhancing patient care and assisting in advanced research initiatives. NCHA and Outcomex are developing solutions that provide:

• Enhanced customer engagement, which aims to optimise facility layouts based on movement analytics improve patient and visitor experiences.
• Improved patient tracking including real-time tracking to reduce wait times and streamline workflows.
• Facilitated research to facilitate data insights that may support future research on disease processes and predictors of adverse outcomes.
• Operational efficiency through the identification of inefficiencies that will enable data-driven decision-making.
• Better patient outcomes that will support targeted interventions for falls prevention, pain management, and early detection of physiological deterioration.
• Enhanced safety, which will provide analytics to help prevent operational health and safety incidents.
• Personalised patient experience including behavioural insights that will allow for tailored patient care and comfort.

This transformative technology aims to optimise resource allocation, enhance patient experience, and support NCHA’s research initiatives. By providing real-time insights into patient

behaviour and staff workflows, the solution will improve patient outcomes and ensure a safer healthcare environment.