Why switching to a predictive care model can improve your quality of care.

We’ve read a lot recently on the concept of “small wins” – making consistent, incremental smaller changes, that over time take you a long way to reaching your ultimate goal.

Given the current movements within the Australian Aged Care landscape, the ultimate goal – the superior delivery of aged care – will take time and a series of “small wins” to achieve.

Stacey Higginbotham, a technology journalist and IoT expert, recently wrote an interesting article on the value of “small wins” within the healthcare system – “Does healthcare have the prescription for valuing IoT?”

Stacey highlights how easy it is for companies to place more value on a visable “big fix” over smaller, incremental improvements, such as maintenance and incident prevention systems.

In Healthcare, however, improving health and wellbeing is all about maintenance and incident prevention and essential to the delivery of quality aged care.

The Internet of Things and connectivity are intrinsically linked to preventative maintenance – with large appliance makers, car manufacturers and factories deploying connected sensors to detect a failure in a product so it can be fixed before it breaks.

At MimoCare we term it “Predictive Care” and the concept is largely the same. Whilst sensors around the home monitor movement and trigger an alert when an emergency arises, they are specifically designed to work behind the scenes in preventing incidents and reducing hospitalisation.

Additional features in the MimoCare sensors have been designed to address those concerns specific to the aged care sector. Motion activated lighting has been incorporated into the hall and bed sensors, improving visibility at night and in low light areas to help prevent falls.

The fridge sensor checks activity for healthy eating patterns, whilst also monitoring temperature levels to reduce food spoilage and subsequent food poisoning.

Sensors in the kitchen and bathroom can detect whether the stove or shower has been left on, preventing serious injury, water damage or fires within the home.

In aged care, the challenge will be making the shift from the current “big fix” or reactionary mindset, to placing greater value on those consistent “small wins” toward predictive care. After all, preventing incidents and maintaining wellbeing is surely the most important concept in providing superior aged care and can provide significant benefits to the elderly and business alike.

Melanie Williams/