Pressure – IoT to reduce damage from pressure ulcers

Pressure ulcers create suffering and high costs in society. In the research project “Pressure - IoT to reduce injuries from pressure ulcers”, the goal is to develop a cheap and robust IoT-based prototype solution with the aim of reducing the suffering and costs arising from pressure ulcers.

The project's goal is to find an IoT solution to prevent bedsores on patients who spend long periods in bed, for example in hospital or at home. By integrating IoT sensors into the mattress, healthcare professionals can monitor and analyze the data coming from the sensors, thus detecting and taking timely measures to prevent complications.

According to the National Board of Health and Welfare's calculations, pressure ulcers give rise to an extended period of care of approximately 50 000 days per year in Sweden, this is something that creates great suffering but also contributes to high costs in the healthcare sector.

The sensor in the project builds on a technology developed at Mid Sweden University in a previous project where a cheap and robust pressure sensor was developed that was tested under a seat. The idea is now to be able to implement that solution in an entire mattress, with the new challenges it will entail and to add an AI model to interpret the information coming from the sensor.

Within the project, some will be about system development as well as testing and further development of the sensor itself and how it can be implemented in healthcare mattresses. Another part of the project will focus on how the technology will be implemented in the municipal operations, what information is needed and in what way the operations and staff should absorb the information.

The project has been granted funds in Vinnova's call IoT for innovative social benefit as one of the total of 7 projects that were granted, the contribution from Vinnova is SEK 2 million.