Internet of Things Set To Change the Face of Dementia Care (theguardian.com)

The internet of things, also known as connected things, have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, but that doesn't mean they are utterly rubbish. Smart bottles that dispense the correct dose of medication at the correct time, for instance, coupled with digital assistants, and chairs that know how long you've sat in them are among the devices set to change the face of care for those living with dementia. From a report on The Guardian: While phone calls and text messages help to keep people in touch, says Idris Jahn, head of health and data at IoTUK, a program within the government-backed Digital Catapult, problems can still arise, from missed appointments to difficulties in taking medication correctly. But he adds, connected sensors and devices that collect and process data in real time could help solve the problem. "For [people living with dementia] the sensors would be more in the environment itself, so embedded into the plug sockets, into the lights -- so it is effectively invisible. You carry on living your life but in the background things will monitor you and provide feedback to people who need to know," he said. "That might be your carer, it might be your family, it might be your clinician." The approach, he added, has the potential to change the way care is given. "It is having that cohesive mechanism to put everyone into the loop, which I think hasn't existed in the past and it is something that people need."

Comments

Good use cases don't eliminate need for security!

[anegg]

The problems of the Internet of Things don't go away with uses such as this, they are exacerbated! IoT things need to be constructed with appropriate security models for their deployments, or else there will be no end of problems resulting from their use.

Right to Die

[Dorianny]

What people suffering from Dementia really need is the option to decide to leave this world on their own terms while the disease still hasn't robbed them of the ability to make those type of decisions

Re:Right to Die

[Marsoupial]

What people suffering from dementia really need is a cure for dementia. Almost all causes of dementia are either potentially treatable or preventable. In fact in almost every case, physician-assisted suicide / euthenasia is or will relatively soon be a cop-out. Cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other leading causes of death are all within realistic shooting distance of advanced technologies and a new group of researchers that have finally figured out that aging is really the big disease that everyone has previously ignored but in fact is perhaps the only disease we really need to treat in most cases.

If you build it, they will come.

[sehlat]

Once these systems are available, they WILL be made mandatory, "For your protection and in case of an emergency." Somewhere in the bowels of the NSA, there are analysts drooling at a full-on implementation of "1984."

Oh goody

[bosef1]

So now when my senile grandfather says that his pill bottles and bathroom fixtures are talking to him... he may actually be right?

Wrong

[s.petry]

Given the example provided, a bottle automatically dispenses the right amount of pills at the right time. IoT simply gives someone the ability to make a whole lot of bottles behave differently, giving extra or no medication on time. In both cases severe complications can arise, so the "benefit" turns into a major detriment very quickly.

Hackers of all kinds daily prove why there is no possible way to have Internet Utopia. It is foolish to have such a belief, and propagating that belief does temporary good for some who profit and damage to many overall. How many extra fees do you have to pay for everything today for "protection"?

IoT has trivial world value. "My Fridge" on the internet sounds great until someone orders you $90,000 worth of caviar to fill it with. Sure, some protections can be put in place but you can not protect everything all the time.