Otiom - the world's first medical device that communicates via Narrowband Internet of Things [NB-IoT], designed to prevent people with dementia from becoming lost, is beginning to make a positive impact in the social care sector and is demonstrating its potential to be a gamechanger for the care of people living with dementia.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society, there are currently around 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK, a figure which is projected to rise to more than 1.6 million by 2040. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, six in every 10 of these people will wander at least once in their lives, while many tend to do so repeatedly.
Although commonplace, wandering can be dangerous or even life-threatening for people with dementia, and the stress of the risks associated can weigh heavily on friends, family and carers. It also places increased strain on the emergency services, with the police often the first port of call to begin searching for missing people, and ambulances are sometimes also required if the person has sustained injuries after having unknowingly absconded.
What is Otiom?
Otiom is a unique and discrete tagging device which people with dementia can easily carry. It utilises IoT technology to ensure safe, reliable tracking indoors and outdoors, and enjoys battery life beyond that of many other monitoring devices.
The Otiom system consists of three parts:
Firstly, the tag: the monitoring device which is carried by the person with a tendency to wander.
Secondly, the home base: which is placed in the home of the person with dementia. The Otiom tag constantly communicates with the home base via Bluetooth while the person is at home and there are no concerns on their whereabouts.
Thirdly, the app: which is free to download on iOS or Android and allows an unlimited number of caregivers or relatives to operate the system.
The Otiom-app allows caregivers to set an appropriate safety level depending on individual circumstances. The safety levels have been designed to cater for people at all stages of dementia and will only trigger an alert when there is perceived danger, for example if the user has been away from home for a certain amount of time or if they have wandered into an unsafe area. At its lowest setting, location data can only be accessed when carers are concerned enough about a person’s whereabouts to manually raise the alarm. The fact that tracking is non-constant helps avoid any invasion of privacy for the person with dementia.
Otiom can be managed using a smartphone and a safety zone can be set outside the personal home or care facility where the person resides, including surrounding gardens or community areas. If the person leaves the safety zone, an alarm will be triggered and the Otiom-app will show the current location, allowing carers or relatives to quickly attend to them and ensure that safety is maintained.
Works in any setting
Otiom can work in any setting; from small private residencies all the way up to large care homes. For the latter, a drawing of the premises is required to plan the project and determine how many homebase units will be required and where they will be placed. There are no limits to the number of users and carers for each home.
Clearly, Otiom can transform the way people with dementia are cared for in the care home, facilitating greater freedom for the individual, rather than confining all to one high security environment.
Where did Otiom come from?
The product is the result of a Danish development project, driven by a collaboration of private companies, Aalborg University, dementia associations including the DaneAge Association, nursing homes and medical professionals, as well as people with dementia and their families.
All who participated in the collaboration were determined to uncover what it would take to prevent a person with dementia from wandering and getting lost, enabling people living with dementia to move freely without fear or incapacity. It soon became clear that no existing technology could resolve the problem, and it took years of work and investment through the collaboration for the right solution to be developed.
An immense amount of research also went into the product, which is reflected in the dementia-friendly design of the Otiom tag, with the device coming with no buttons or flashing lights to avoid confusing or disturbing the person living with dementia.
Otiom, developed by Danish firm ACUBIT, was trialled in a pilot project in Denmark in early 2021 prior to its nationwide rollout, which was met with great acclaim in the national media. However, it has in fact been used in dementia care homes in Denmark for the last four years, with the Aalborg Municipality first introducing it to nursing homes in the region in 2018.
Thomas Pedersen, director of the Otiom team, comments: “There are several reasons why Otiom stands out from all the other solutions on the market. One of the reasons is that the goal extends beyond simply finding a person with dementia. Otiom also aims to prevent the problem, ensuring that the person will not wander in the first place.
“Furthermore, Otiom is one of the first products that uses the new Narrowband Internet of Things [NB-IoT] technology. Several telecommunications companies have played a key role in developing and implementing the antenna technology that makes Otiom unique.”
What has the response in Denmark been?
Testimonials from nursing staff and professionals from Aalborg University and University College Northern Jutland have seen much praise for Otiom’s long battery life [up to one month for the Otiom tag, and between three and four years for the home base units]. Otiom has also received positive feedback for its ability to provide the location of people quickly and securely, as well as its ease of use.
In its own summary of the product, the Aalborg Municipality went as far as saying that Otiom units worked more effectively than a standard GPS device, with users having to spend less time signal checking and charging the battery. It singled out another positive feature of the Otiom system in this respect, in that it sends a notification to the carer or relative when the battery in either the tag or home base system needs to be charged.
Furthermore, in a survey of care home staff, the Aalborg Municipality uncovered that 86 per cent of respondents rated Otiom as more power efficient than a standard GPS unit, while 50 per cent said that Otiom displayed fewer signal failures compared to GPS. 86 per cent also said that the device was generally easier to use.
The study uncovered that on average, carers would spend between five and 15-minutes tracking people with dementia using a GPS system, whereas with Otiom it took just two-to-five minutes to successfully do so. With this, 100 per cent of respondents either agreed or mostly agreed that Otiom helped improve security, since it allowed for personalised settings tailored to individual requirements and notified carers immediately when people strayed outside their safe zones. Respondents also referred to the fact that Otiom has the unique ability to track people indoors, whereas GPS cannot.
When asked about accuracy, 71 per cent of care staff surveyed within the Aalborg municipal area reported that Otiom was more accurate than the GPS system.
Is Otiom available in the UK?
Pentland Medical, a firm which provides unique products to the healthcare sector, was confirmed as the sole British supplier of Otiom in late 2021. The product is now available in the UK and can be purchased through the company.
For those who want to try the product before deciding whether to buy, the Otiom system can be rented through Pentland Medical with a monthly fee, with the first month free of charge and no obligation to continue, essentially giving people a free trial of the system.
If the user chooses to take up the rental package, the subscription can be cancelled at any time. The product is also subject to an indefinite warranty, so if the equipment stops working at any point during the rental period, it will be replaced for free. Furthermore, the ongoing support of Pentland Medical’s expert team will be available throughout, which has already been hailed as “friendly and professional” and “great” by customers in the care sector across England and Scotland.
Pentland Medical managing director, Stewart Munro, says of the product: “This unique ground-breaking technology for managing people with dementia…is already involving the company in significant engagement with the social care market and the enormous challenges in this sector.
“Otiom offers peace of mind and freedom, allowing people to move more freely. It's a game-changing addition to the support of carers with a growing number of people living with dementia globally. It provides carers and families with the ability to track indoors and outdoors, it is low cost, low maintenance, has a long battery life, and benefits from improved communication stability.”
What has the reaction in the UK been?
North of the border, Alzheimer's Scotland has included Otiom on its ADAM [About Digital And Me] platform of recommended assistive technologies. A review by one user that sampled the system following the recommendation said that the Otiom system provided “peace of mind to know that my father can be found so easily when activating the Otiom GPS”, adding that they were “so happy with all aspects.”
The same user also praised the dementia-friendly design of the tag, which enabled him to display pictures of his father’s parents on either side of the device to provide extra comfort.
The user said: “[The Otiom tag is] great as a keyring to add pictures onto and we've decorated it. My father takes it everywhere now pictures of his mother and father are attached to the tag.”
Otiom has also been met with rave reviews at Whytecliffe Group Care Homes, a care provider in East Sussex. In a testimonial published by Pentland Medical, registered manager, Paul Cartwright, discussed how Whytecliffe was struggling to manage a 40-year-old resident with Huntington disease who regularly attempted to leave the building and successfully did so on more than one occasion. The provider originally turned to Pentland Medical and the Otiom system in search of a means to better monitor the person and prevent further breakouts.
Having been initially impressed with the “friendly, professional manner” of installation and set-up of the system by Pentland Medical, Cartwright went on to say that the resident co-operated in wearing his Otiom tag, and the system had “improved safety levels for both resident and care team”. He added that he had recommended Otiom at a recent care managers’ forum and would continue to do so.
With feedback in the UK already proving positive, Pentland Medical’s Stewart Munro is already excited about its potential and talks are underway between Pentland Medical and care providers, keyholding and alarm response firms about rolling Otiom out further.
He said: “Clearly Otiom is a major development in social care. Our ambition is to raise its profile in this country because we feel it can truly make a difference by reducing the risks of wandering for people living with dementia and easing the strain on emergency services who would normally then be deployed to find the lost person. This is vindicated by the discussions we’ve had with care providers looking after dementia patients that have used the product.
“Following these endorsements, we are bringing a video marketing campaign for the product to the call-to-action phase. Feedback from our initial marketing videos so far has been positive and attracted a significant following, and hopefully this is the beginning of making Otiom a household name in the UK and ensuring it can truly make a difference to the lives of people living with dementia, their caregivers and their families.”
Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash
