ASX-listed HSC Technology Group and partners Whiddon, Anchor Excellence and the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have been awarded a $160,000 Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) grant towards their $400,000 project to test falls prevention sensor technology in residential aged care.
The grant will fund a feasibility study of ‘Talius’, which combines data analytics with sensor technology to prevent falls in residential aged care.
“The prevalence of falls is unacceptably high in residential aged care and more research is required to support quality and safer care”, said Dr Maggie Haertsch, Consulting Clinical Research Director for HSC Technology Group.
“The ARIIA funding will be used to develop the BEST CARE Project, which will provide an excellent opportunity to be smarter in detecting functional changes early and help design care to enable older people to have timely support as their needs change.
“The aged care workforce is currently under stress and there is much that this technology can do to help,” she said.
Talius incorporates an algorithm originally developed and tested in an in-home care setting by CSIRO.
“The use of CSIRO’s monitored smart technologies in home care has demonstrated that for older adults with Home Care Packages, the intervention benefited their social care related quality of life,” said Marlien Varnfield, Principal Research Scientist, at CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre.
“Using similar sensors and the aggregation of this data into the Talius platform for the prevention of falls in residential aged care is a logical next step.”
