title: A videoconferencing tool acting as a home-based healthcare monitoring robot for elderly patients.
abstract: Currently, healthcare costs associated with aging at home can be prohibitive if individuals require continual/periodical supervision and assistance because of Alzheimer's disease. Open-source tools and videoconferencing tools are attracting more significant organizations; it has been observed that another way to reduce medical care costs is to reduce the length of the patient's hospitalization and reinforce home sanitary support by medical professionals with family care givers. Videoconferencing has been around for a while and presently this technology is the leading way in reducing healthcare costs, thus making medical care more available and convenient for both doctors and patients. This article portrays how the videoconferencing tool can be utilized to improve communication practices for patient monitoring using a Robot Companion. SWOT analysis method is also presented in a form of a summary and was utilized to evaluate the user's point of view.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. MapunduZ@tut.ac.za
authors.forename: Zamikhaya
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mapundu
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Simonnet
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: van der Walt
mesh_terms: D005853:Geriatrics; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012371:Robotics; D017216:Telemedicine; D049269:Videoconferencing / Q000295:instrumentation*