Detection of health deterioration in a COVID-19 patient at home: the potential of ambient sensor systems

The COVID-19 pandemic created increased interest in monitoring patients at home to allow timely recognition of health deteriorations. Hospital care is particularly demanding in these patients because of the necessity for isolation to avoid further spread of the disease. Therefore, home care is a preferred treatment setting for these patients. This is, to our knowledge, the first report indicating the potential of an affordable, contactless, and unobtrusive ambient sensor system for the detection of signs of health deterioration in a patient with COVID-19 by a caregiver from a distance. Prospective data acquisition and correlation of the data with clinical events were obtained from an 81-year-old senior with COVID-19 before and, in particular, over a period of 10 days prior to hospitalization. Clinical signs included weakness, increased respiration rate, sleep disturbances, and confusion. The visualization of a combination of this information on a dedicated dashboard allowed the caregiver to recognize a serious health deterioration that required a lifesaving hospitalization. The potential of such ambient sensor systems to detect signs of serious health deterioration in patients with COVID-19 opens new opportunities for use in asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic patients who live alone and are sent back to their homes for isolation in quarantine after diagnosis.