Over a period of one week, seven senior citizens tested an upper-arm sensor designed to measure vital data. Although the sensor was very comfortable to wear, there were suggestions for improvements for use with palliative care patients.

A further AAL pilot product was tested. The innovation is intended for palliative care, specifically for end-of-life care in the home environment. The testing is part of the Mobile Palliative Care (MPC) study, which is being sponsored by the Gebert Rüf Stiftung foundation (GRS-50/16). The symptoms of people with specialised palliative care needs are to be monitored by means of an upper-arm sensor for measuring vital data (pulse, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, skin temperature, blood flow and movement) and a symptoms diary. This makes it possible to identify end-of-life medical crises early on, with the aim of helping those in need of care at home for as long as possible and providing the family caregivers with appropriate relief. For example, symptoms can be alleviated before an acute medical crisis occurs that makes hospital admission necessary. The focus is on people with specialised palliative care needs and on their family members accompanying them in the final phase before death.

As part of the LivingLab 65+ project, seven senior citizens (two women and five men) tested this upper-arm sensor and the symptoms diary over a period of one week. The aim was to assess and optimise their user-friendliness prior to making them available for people with specialised palliative care needs. Owing to the concrete responses, the products were able to be optimised, and they can now be tested in the next phase of the project with the vulnerable group of palliative care patients and their family members.