Abstract
The population of solitary elders is increasing because of the aging society. The number of patients who are living alone and those with chronic diseases is increasing because of stressful life. Thus, tele-homecare service for solitary elders or chronic patients is an important issue because no one can provide timely help to subjects who live alone once they fall seriously ill or encounter an accident. Therefore, developing a tele-homecare system for this population group can assist paramedics in real-time evaluation. This study proposes a personalized evaluation and support care system to provide in-time care for solitary elders and home care patients. There are three roles played in this system, namely, the emergency response center (ERC), the care support agent, and the subject in need. One database and two analytical sub-models are included in the system. (1) Personal Database: Recorded by a tele-homecare device from the subject in need. The data of each subject and the professional knowledge of doctors will be integrated to establish an individual physical record, which will be stored at the ERC. (2) Evaluation Model: Fuzzy Logic is applied to derive a real-time individual health status to provide the ERC with indicators on whether the subjects are at risk. (3) Supporting Care Model: A decision-making model based on a dispatching optimization program is established to suggest the available and most efficient ERC agent to reach the subjects and provide timely assistance.A case study in Hsinchu is conducted to illustrate the proposed system. The result of the case study shows that this system can provide the accurate health status of a subject in need and support the ERC and available agent to provide assistance efficiently.