ABSTRACT
Inadditiontoloweringhealthcarecost,providingcareathomeincreasesconvenienceandindependenceforpatientsandsocialcareers.Avoidingfrequentvisitstohealthcarefacilitiesalsoreducesexposuretopotentialhospitalinfections.Postoperativerecoverycanbemanagedathome(Loetal.,2007), reducinghospitalstaya·ersurgery.Manyillnesses,forinstancecardiacrelated,areassociatedwith infrequent,yetpotentiallylife-threateningepisodes.Traditionalassessmentinaclinicallaboratorybasedenvironmenthasalowprobabilityofcatchingtransientevents.Ÿeprovisionofcontinuous, pervasivesensingissettotransformourfutureofmanagingpatientswithchronicdiseases.Oneimportantopportunityprovidedbysuchasensingschemeistheearlydetectionofdiseasethroughbehavior profiling(Atallahetal.,2007).Ÿeonsetorcomplicationofadiseasemaybeprecededbychangesinpatternsofbehaviororactivity.Changesinsleepingpatterns,socialactivity,oreating,forexample,canbe duetogastroesophagealreflux,heartdisease,andurinarytractinfections.Changesingaitcanindicate recoveryfrominjuryorexacerbationofit,oraccordingtorecentresearch,evenneurologicaldiseases such as dementia (Verghese et al., 2002).
