Decubitus is a skin disease caused by prolonged pressure exposure of single skin regions; it is a major problem in nursing and up to now no satisfying prevention systems exist. We prototypically implemented and tested the feasibility of several types of sensors in three different scenarios and conducted a survey in a group of specialists in the field. Results indicate that accelerometer based approaches may be useful, affordable and feasible for long-term home care applications, while sensor based on pressure mats should rather be used for short-term equipment optimization.

Medication management is not only of relevance related to a specific therapy, but has also a high impact in every days life, especially for elderly people who are likely to be affected by major-polypharmacy. This often results in a low medication adherence, caused by low acceptance, low persistence, and low compliance. ICT based solutions can help to address the low compliance by reminding people and by recording the actual medication intake. In this paper we give a brief motivation for active medication management in the context of Ambient Assisted Living and present the results of a recently carried out study evaluating a personal drug reminder system. This study showed, that acceptance of such systems can be high, provided that usability and stability are high.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the logical further development of today’s Internet. Technological advancements lead to smart objects being capable of identifying, locating, sensing and connecting and thus leading to new forms of communication between people and things and things themselves. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) encompasses technical systems to support elderly people in their daily routine to allow an independent and safe lifestyle as long as possible. Keep In Touch (KIT) uses smart objects and technologies (Near Field Communication and Radio Frequency Identification) to facilitate telemonitoring processes. Closed Loop Healthcare Services take use of KIT technology and are capable of processing relevant data and establishing communication channels between elderly people and their environment and different groups of care-givers (physicians, relatives, mobile care providers). The combination of KIT technology (smart objects) and Closed Loop Healthcare Services results in an applied IoT infrastructure for AAL scenarios. Already applied IoT and AAL applications in telemonitoring and medication intake compliance projects show that these applications are useful and accepted by the elderly and that the developed infrastructure enables a new form of communication between people and people, people-to-people (P2P) communication. The personal communication between elderly people, their environment and relevant groups of care givers is an important aspect in AAL. Through the combination of KIT and Closed Loop Healthcare, a central AAL paradigm can be realized through the IoT, where the elderly live in their homes with smart objects, thus smart homes, communicating to the outside world in an intelligent and goal-orientated manner.