ODLs making a comeback?

Donna Cusano

Observations of daily living (ODLs), which in a more limited form called ADLs (activities of daily living) moved telecare from the pendant to sensor-based behavioral telemonitoring, may be making a comeback.  The Princeton, NJ based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding five studies that are centered around gathering information – such as diet, exercise, sleep patterns, medication usage and pain – from the flow of people’s lives, with the objective of seeing how this data can be collected, interpreted and used in clinical settings.  The studies will use smartphones and sensors to monitor obesity and depression, Crohn’s disease, low birth weight infants, asthma and depression and seniors with arthritis at risk for cognitive decline.  San Francisco Business Times.