logo
Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone

Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone

Straits Times17 hours ago
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
SINGAPORE – Ms Julie Chia lives alone in a flat in Tampines and keeps herself active despite her advanced age.
The 97-year-old feels secure each time she heads out, whether it is to the Lions Befrienders (LB) Active Ageing Centre at her void deck to play Rummy-O with her friends or nearby to buy the newspaper and her dinner.
The sprightly woman is among more than 200 seniors living alone who have been recruited since 2020 for a longitudinal study looking into using smart sensor technology to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – a condition that increases one's risk of developing dementia – in order to respond to it early. This will help seniors to age better and remain for longer in the community.
'With this (beacon sensor) on my keychain, I know that whenever I go out, someone knows. I feel more relieved,' said Ms Chia.
What the researchers have gathered from the second phase of the study, with sensor data collected from 63 seniors living alone, is that the machine learning-based prediction technology is able to detect MCI at a 90 per cent accuracy rate.
This is an improvement from the previous performance of 70 per cent obtained in the first phase of the study in 2020.
The data for the study is generated by eight sensors placed in different parts of the participants' homes, such as the living room, under the mattress, inside their medicine box or cabinet, and on the door.
A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out.
Additionally, the seniors are given a wearable device to measure their daily steps and heart rate.
In Ms Chia's case, the sensors were installed at her home in April 2021.
Unlike a traditional video surveillance system that captures images and voices, the sensors monitor movement and daily routines discreetly, including sleep patterns, physical activity and memory lapses.
They also track how often the senior moves around the flat or goes out and for how long, how well he or she sleeps, or the frequency of forgetting personal items, particularly their medications.
A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
The longitudinal study, called Sensors In-home for Elder Wellbeing , is led by Associate Professor Iris Rawtaer, head and senior consultant at the department of psychiatry and director of research at Sengkang General Hospital , and p rofessor of computer science Tan Ah Hwee from Singapore Management University.
It is estimated that there will be 152,000 individuals living with dementia in Singapore by 2030, and 187,000 by 2050. While global study statistics vary, up to half of all people with MCI go on to develop dementia within five years, said Prof Rawtaer.
In 2024, the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care found that 45 per cent of cases of dementia could potentially be delayed by addressing some of the modifiable risk factors, such as social isolation, untreated vision loss and high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, commonly known as bad cholesterol.
However, many people are not even aware of experiencing MCI, the at-risk state for dementia. They seek help only after significant cognitive decline has occurred, missing the crucial window for intervention and advanced planning, said Prof Rawtaer.
This is where the sensor system can help.
'Nine out of 10 times, it essentially outperforms your pen and paper routine screening instruments like your MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) and your Moca (Montreal Cognitive Assessment),' Prof Rawtaer told The Straits Times.
MMSE and Moca are brief screening tools used to assess cognitive function and detect MCI as well as mild dementia. The participants in the study go through detailed neurocognitive assessments yearly, providing the benchmark against which the machine learning models in the sensor system are tested.
'The question is whether seniors can accept the use of the sensor system. Is this intrusive? Is this inconvenient? Is this going to be something that we can scale and do in the long term in the community?' Prof Rawtaer said.
Ms Chia, for instance, did not have her wearable device – a study requirement – on her on the day of the interview. A spokesman for LB, who was with her that day, said the seniors may forget to charge their wearable device.
Prof Tan said that for the second phase of the study, the team developed an advanced machine learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) model to handle irrelevant or missing sensor data due to hardware failure, for instance.
The AI can also explain why it flagged someone as being at risk, he said. As an example, it has learnt that people with MCI often move around less while at home and are more likely to forget to take their medication.
'At SMU, we have one data engineer and two data analysts looking at the data. Moving forward, we are thinking that we should partner with a commercial party... to be able to do this in a viable manner. It's not just the installation of the equipment but the maintenance and the day-to-day monitoring,' he said.
The total installation cost of the sensor system is below $1,000.
In the third planned phase of the study – for which the researchers are awaiting funding – they will test the sensors in multi-person households, and look at new digital biomarkers and how to reduce the numbers of sensors used to make the monitoring system more efficient and affordable.
Beyond cognitive assessment, the smart sensor system could be expanded to support safety monitoring and health assessment, the researchers said.
LB's executive director Karen Wee said the smart sensor system has a lot of potential not just in helping seniors to age well in the community, but also in enabling providers like it to better support the seniors.
'Wearables may not be something that the seniors of today are keen on, but who is to say that in 10 years' time they will not be widespread,' she said.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

More nurses to anchor care in community settings as Singapore's population ages
More nurses to anchor care in community settings as Singapore's population ages

Straits Times

time7 hours ago

  • Straits Times

More nurses to anchor care in community settings as Singapore's population ages

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Minister for Health and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Ong Ye Kung speaks at the Nurses' Merit Award ceremony in Shangri-La Hotel, on July 7. SINGAPORE - More nurses will be trained to anchor care in community care settings, take on leadership roles in nursing homes as well as delivering end-of-life care in the community to cope with a rapidly aging population, said Mr Ong Ye Kung, Health Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Polices. 'If community care is effective… I think we will be able to detect health concerns as early as possible. And if we can detect (them) early, the conditions will be less severe, intervention will be as simple as possible,' he said. He was speaking at the 2025 nurses' merit award held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Orange Grove Road on July 7. There, he conferred the awards on 141 nurses who had performed exceptionally well and contributed to raising the nursing profession. Three nursing roles will be scaled up to strengthen care in the community, where there is a growing need, including nurses at community health posts. Right now, some 90 per cent of the Active Ageing Centres (AACs) have Community Health Posts (CHPs), where nurses set up on a weekly basis. Mr Ong said the extensive outreach of the AACs needs to be tapped for preventive or continual care to reach the seniors, through the CHPs. This will complement hospital acute care, strengthen Singapore's preventive care strategy Healthier SG and the work of family doctors. Each day, there are six kidney failure patients and 60 heart attack and stroke patients, and if the CHPs can help those who are unaware of their condition or reluctant to seek help, the numbers can be lowered, he pointed out. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Four golf courses to close by 2035, leaving Singapore with 12 courses Singapore Eligible S'poreans to get up to $850 in cash, up to $450 in MediSave top-ups in August Singapore Construction starts on Cross Island Line Phase 2; 6 MRT stations in S'pore's west ready by 2032 Singapore New SkillsFuture requirements from April 2026 to mandate regular training for adult educators Singapore MPs should not ask questions to 'clock numbers'; focus should be improving S'poreans' lives: Seah Kian Peng Singapore Sequencing and standards: Indranee on role of Leader of the House Asia Australian woman found guilty of all counts in mushroom murders case Singapore Life After... blazing biomedical research trail in S'pore: Renowned scientist breaks new ground at 59 'Nurses in CHPs will need to establish yourselves as the first point of contact for residents with chronic conditions, preventive health needs, or emerging symptoms,' he said. They will be able to conduct assessments, provide health counselling to patients, and ensure that patients are adhering to their health plans prescribed by their Healthier SG doctor. 'They see their Healthier SG doctor maybe once or twice a year. In between, they can see our nurses at CHPs,' said Mr Ong. With training, CHP nurses can also conduct social prescribing (helping patients to improve their health and well being by connecting them to community services) and referrals and manage patients with stable mental health conditions, he said. A system is also needed to provide community nurses with the relevant backend information and advisory support so that they can operate independently, and with as much autonomy as possible, he said, In long-term care, the Health Ministry has been upskilling the nurses in nursing homes to better care for patients to minimise the chances of patients having to move to acute hospitals and back. Now, it wants to strengthen the process by training more nurse clinicians to lead the care in long-term residential care settings. Mr Ong said Nurse Clinicians need to be empowered , particularly Advanced Practice Nurses who are practising at the apex of the profession. MOH is working towards allowing Nurse Clinicians, starting with APNs, to assess and initiate first-line treatments or medications and conduct six-monthly chronic reviews within defined protocols in nursing homes. This will help to minimise hospital admissions and emergency department visits, resulting in fewer transitions, improving quality of care, he explained. Furthermore, more nurses will be trained to deliver end -of-life care in the community. To scale up the three roles, not only will training need to be enhanced, a more flexible regulatory approach will be needed, he said. For example, if the vision is to enhance the role of community nurses to provide more comprehensive care as early and as close to home as possible, then MOH will need need to review the nurses' scope of practice, equip them with advanced skills and create clear patterns or collaborative care. 'If, as regulators, we disallow this evolution of practice, then the needs of an ageing population will not be met,' said Mr Ong. Also, manpower upgrading will be made easier, with working nurses able to take up courses lasting a few weeks or a couple of months, and then applying them at the workplace immediately. The two polytechnics delivering three advanced and specialist diploma programmes in palliative nursing, in both part-time and full-time formats, will be shifting these programmes to a work-study format in 2027, Mr Ong said. On Monday , the 141 nurses who received the merit awards each received a medal to wear on their uniform and a cash prize of $1,000. Nurses at the Nurses' Merit Award ceremony in Shangri-La Hotel, on July 7. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY One of them is Azhar Mohd, a 56-year-old nurse clinician from Singapore General Hospital with 34 years of nursing experience. Based at the hospital's Ambulatory Endoscopy Centre, he has developed training programmes for new endoscopy nurses. He has also been a lecturer for the Specialist Diploma in Endoscopy at Nanyang Polytechnic since 2018. Endoscopy is a procedure in which an instrument is introduced into the body to give a view of its internal parts and look out for diseases. Ms Megawati, 39, a nurse clinician from NUHS Regional Health System Office, has contributed to improving the transitional care for patients moving from the community to nursing homes, which reduced the frequency of their hospital re-admissions. As a community nurse, on any given day, she might be heading to a patient's home to assess for risk of falls or help them manage their chronic issues for instance, or to Community Health Post to do the same. Ms Megawati, a nurse clinician from NUHS Regional Health System Office, heads a team of 11 nurses who are now focusing on helping the residents in Chua Chu Kang with their health. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY 'When you step inside the home, you can see their challenges and how to help them better,' said the mother of two. Ms Megawati, who spent 18 years studying part-time for a Bachelor's degree in nursing that she obtained last year, heads a team of 11 nurses who are now focusing on helping the residents in Chua Chu Kang with their health. Ms Tan Nengping, 61, a senior nurse manager from the Health Promotion Board who leads three school health screening teams is another winner. She led efforts to develop a more efficient system for the equipment and surgical inventory such as swabs for HPB's Youth Preventive Health Service department.

From Karachi to Gaza: Pakistani start-up ships prosthetics to child war survivors
From Karachi to Gaza: Pakistani start-up ships prosthetics to child war survivors

Straits Times

time12 hours ago

  • Straits Times

From Karachi to Gaza: Pakistani start-up ships prosthetics to child war survivors

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A technician uses a mobile phone for 3D scan of a patient before developing a prosthetic limb at Bioniks. KARACHI - As soon as eight-year-old Sidra Al Bordeeni returned from the clinic with her prosthetic arm, she jumped on a bicycle in the Jordanian refugee camp where she lives, riding for the first time since a missile strike in Gaza took her arm a year ago. Sidra was injured while sheltering at Nuseirat School, one of several Gaza schools converted into makeshift refuges from Israeli strikes. Her mother, Ms Sabreen Al Bordeeni, said Gaza's collapsed health services and the family's inability to leave at the time made it impossible to save her hand. 'She's out playing, and all her friends and siblings are fascinated by her arm,' Al Bordeeni said on the phone, repeatedly thanking God for this day. 'I can't express how grateful I am to see my daughter happy.' The arm was built over 4,000km away in Karachi by Bioniks, a Pakistani company that uses a smartphone app to take pictures from different angles and create a 3D model for custom prosthetics. Chief executive Anas Niaz said the social enterprise startup had fit more than 1,000 custom-designed arms inside Pakistan since 2021 - funded through a mix of patient payments, corporate sponsorship, and donations - but this was its first time providing prosthetics to those impacted in conflict. Sidra and three-year-old Habebat Allah, who lost both her arms and a leg in Gaza, went through days of remote consultations and virtual fittings. Then Niaz flew from Karachi to Amman to meet the girls and make his company's first overseas delivery. Sidra's device was funded by Mafaz Clinic in Amman, while donations from Pakistanis paid for Habebat's. Mafaz chief executive Entesar Asaker said the clinic partnered with Bioniks for its low costs, remote solutions and ability to troubleshoot virtually. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Construction starts on Cross Island Line phase 2; 6 MRT stations in S'pore's west ready by 2032 Singapore New SkillsFuture requirements by April 2026 to mandate regular training for adult educators Singapore MPs should not ask questions to 'clock numbers'; focus should be improving S'poreans' lives: Seah Kian Peng Singapore Sequencing and standards: Indranee on role of Leader of the House Singapore NUS College draws 10,000 applications for 400 places, showing strong liberal arts interest Life Rock band My Chemical Romance to perform in Singapore in April 2026 Singapore Life After... blazing biomedical research trail in S'pore: Renowned scientist breaks new ground at 59 Singapore More students in Singapore juggle studying and working to support their families Mr Niaz said each prosthetic arm costs about US$2,500 (S$3,190), significantly less than the US$10,000 to US$20,000 for alternatives made in the United States. While Bioniks' arms are less sophisticated than US versions, they provide a high level of functionality for children and their remote process makes them more accessible than options from other countries such as Turkey and South Korea. 'We plan on providing limbs for people in other conflict zones too, like Ukraine, and become a global company,' Mr Niaz said. Globally, most advanced prosthetics are designed for adults and rarely reach children in war zones, who need lighter limbs and replacements every 12–18 months as they grow. Mr Niaz said they were exploring funding options for Sidra and Habebat's future replacements, adding the cost wouldn't be too high. 'Only a few components would need to be changed,' he said, 'the rest can be reused to help another child.' Bioniks occasionally incorporates popular fictional characters into its children's prosthetics such as Marvel's Iron Man or Disney's Elsa, a feature Mr Niaz said helps with emotional acceptance and daily use. Anas Niaz, mechatronic engineer and chief executive of Bioniks, said the company plans to provide prosthetic limbs for people in other conflict zones. PHOTO: REUTERS 'Finally hug my father' Gaza now has around 4,500 new amputees, on top of 2,000 existing cases from before the war, many of them children, making it one of the highest child-amputation crises per capita in recent history, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in March. An April study by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics found at least 7,000 children have been injured since Israel's war in Gaza began in October 2023. Local health authorities say more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, nearly one-third of them children. The World Health Organisation has said Gaza's health system is 'on its knees' with Israel's border closures drying up critical supplies, meaning the wounded cannot access specialised care, especially amid waves of wounded patients. 'Where it's nearly impossible for healthcare professionals and patients to meet, remote treatment bridges a critical gap, making assessments, fittings, and follow-up possible without travel or specialised centres,' said Asadullah Khan, Clinic Manager at ProActive Prosthetic in Leeds, UK, which provides artificial limbs and support for trauma patients. Bioniks hopes to pioneer such solutions on a large scale but funding remains a roadblock and the company is still trying to form viable partnerships. Sidra is still adjusting to her new hand, on which she now wears a small bracelet. For much of the past year, when she wanted to make a heart, a simple gesture using both hands, she would ask someone else to complete it. This time, she formed the shape herself, snapped a photo, and sent it to her father, who is still trapped in Gaza. 'What I'm looking forward to most is using both my arms to finally hug my father when I see him,' she said. REUTERS

Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone
Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone

Straits Times

time17 hours ago

  • Straits Times

Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Ms Julie Chia lives alone in a flat in Tampines and keeps herself active despite her advanced age. The 97-year-old feels secure each time she heads out, whether it is to the Lions Befrienders (LB) Active Ageing Centre at her void deck to play Rummy-O with her friends or nearby to buy the newspaper and her dinner. The sprightly woman is among more than 200 seniors living alone who have been recruited since 2020 for a longitudinal study looking into using smart sensor technology to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – a condition that increases one's risk of developing dementia – in order to respond to it early. This will help seniors to age better and remain for longer in the community. 'With this (beacon sensor) on my keychain, I know that whenever I go out, someone knows. I feel more relieved,' said Ms Chia. What the researchers have gathered from the second phase of the study, with sensor data collected from 63 seniors living alone, is that the machine learning-based prediction technology is able to detect MCI at a 90 per cent accuracy rate. This is an improvement from the previous performance of 70 per cent obtained in the first phase of the study in 2020. The data for the study is generated by eight sensors placed in different parts of the participants' homes, such as the living room, under the mattress, inside their medicine box or cabinet, and on the door. A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out. Additionally, the seniors are given a wearable device to measure their daily steps and heart rate. In Ms Chia's case, the sensors were installed at her home in April 2021. Unlike a traditional video surveillance system that captures images and voices, the sensors monitor movement and daily routines discreetly, including sleep patterns, physical activity and memory lapses. They also track how often the senior moves around the flat or goes out and for how long, how well he or she sleeps, or the frequency of forgetting personal items, particularly their medications. A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG The longitudinal study, called Sensors In-home for Elder Wellbeing , is led by Associate Professor Iris Rawtaer, head and senior consultant at the department of psychiatry and director of research at Sengkang General Hospital , and p rofessor of computer science Tan Ah Hwee from Singapore Management University. It is estimated that there will be 152,000 individuals living with dementia in Singapore by 2030, and 187,000 by 2050. While global study statistics vary, up to half of all people with MCI go on to develop dementia within five years, said Prof Rawtaer. In 2024, the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care found that 45 per cent of cases of dementia could potentially be delayed by addressing some of the modifiable risk factors, such as social isolation, untreated vision loss and high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, commonly known as bad cholesterol. However, many people are not even aware of experiencing MCI, the at-risk state for dementia. They seek help only after significant cognitive decline has occurred, missing the crucial window for intervention and advanced planning, said Prof Rawtaer. This is where the sensor system can help. 'Nine out of 10 times, it essentially outperforms your pen and paper routine screening instruments like your MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) and your Moca (Montreal Cognitive Assessment),' Prof Rawtaer told The Straits Times. MMSE and Moca are brief screening tools used to assess cognitive function and detect MCI as well as mild dementia. The participants in the study go through detailed neurocognitive assessments yearly, providing the benchmark against which the machine learning models in the sensor system are tested. 'The question is whether seniors can accept the use of the sensor system. Is this intrusive? Is this inconvenient? Is this going to be something that we can scale and do in the long term in the community?' Prof Rawtaer said. Ms Chia, for instance, did not have her wearable device – a study requirement – on her on the day of the interview. A spokesman for LB, who was with her that day, said the seniors may forget to charge their wearable device. Prof Tan said that for the second phase of the study, the team developed an advanced machine learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) model to handle irrelevant or missing sensor data due to hardware failure, for instance. The AI can also explain why it flagged someone as being at risk, he said. As an example, it has learnt that people with MCI often move around less while at home and are more likely to forget to take their medication. 'At SMU, we have one data engineer and two data analysts looking at the data. Moving forward, we are thinking that we should partner with a commercial party... to be able to do this in a viable manner. It's not just the installation of the equipment but the maintenance and the day-to-day monitoring,' he said. The total installation cost of the sensor system is below $1,000. In the third planned phase of the study – for which the researchers are awaiting funding – they will test the sensors in multi-person households, and look at new digital biomarkers and how to reduce the numbers of sensors used to make the monitoring system more efficient and affordable. Beyond cognitive assessment, the smart sensor system could be expanded to support safety monitoring and health assessment, the researchers said. LB's executive director Karen Wee said the smart sensor system has a lot of potential not just in helping seniors to age well in the community, but also in enabling providers like it to better support the seniors. 'Wearables may not be something that the seniors of today are keen on, but who is to say that in 10 years' time they will not be widespread,' she said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store