Towards developing effective Continence Management through wetness alert diaper: Experiences, lessons learned, challenges and future directions

• Published in: 2010 4th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Wai, Aung Aung Phyo, Foo, Siang Fook, Jayachandran, Maniyeri, Biswas, Jit, Nugent, Chris, Mulvenna, Maurice, Zhang, Daqing, Craig, David, Passmore, Peter, Lee, Jer-En, Yap, Philip
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.03.2010
• Subjects: Cities and towns; continence management; Dementia; Electric breakdown; Hospitals; Medical services; patients with dementia; Radiofrequency identification; Senior citizens; Skin; Telecommunications; urinary incontinence; wetness alert diaper; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 2153-1633
• DOI: 10.4108/ICST.PERVASIVEHEALTH2010.8832

Incontinence is one of the major healthcare issues in everyday nursing care especially for frail elderly and patients with dementia (PWD) in nursing homes. Urinary incontinence and diaper use are prevalent in PWD due to decline in intellect and physical activities. They may lie in soiled diapers for prolonged periods resulting in indignity, discomfort, skin breakdowns and bedsores. In order to alleviate this, we propose a solution using wetness alert diaper capable of timely diaper change. In this paper, the experiences and lessons learned from initial evaluation trials with intelligent Continence Management System (iCMSv1) are explained. Then, desirable refinements and extensions are made to develop iCMSv2 enabling anywhere anytime continence management. We finally discuss challenges and possible future directions towards developing a new care model to manage incontinence effectively and efficiently.