A planning system based on Markov decision processes to guide people with dementia through activities of daily living

Author

Boger, Jennifer ; Hoey, Jesse ; Poupart, Pascal ; Boutilier, Craig ; Fernie, Geoff ; Mihailidis, Alex

Author_Institution

Dept. of Occupational Sci. & Occupational Therapy, Univ. of Toronto, Ont.

Volume

10

Issue

2

fYear

2006

fDate

4/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

323

Lastpage

333

Abstract

Older adults with dementia often cannot remember how to complete activities of daily living and require a caregiver to aid them through the steps involved. The use of a computerized guidance system could potentially reduce the reliance on a caregiver. This paper examines the design and preliminary evaluation of a planning system that uses Markov decision processes (MDPs) to determine when and how to provide prompts to a user with dementia for guidance through the activity of handwashing. Results from the study suggest that MDPs can be applied effectively to this type of guidance problem. Considerations for the development of future guidance systems are presented

Keywords

Markov processes; decision making; diseases; geriatrics; health care; medical computing; patient monitoring; MDP; Markov decision process; autonomous guidance; computerized guidance system; daily living activities; dementia; handwashing; older adults; planning system; Computer science; Dementia; Information technology; Intelligent robots; Intelligent systems; Iris; Laboratories; Process planning; Technology planning; Uncertainty; Activities of daily living (ADLs); Markov decision process (MDP); autonomous guidance; dementia;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Information Technology in Biomedicine, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1089-7771

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TITB.2006.864480

Filename

1613958