Networked health care and monitoring system

摘要

A networked health care and monitoring system (10) capable of providing an updated reliable vital information on the health condition of individuals and adapted to support home health care and maintenance. The system includes testing and measuring instruments (39; 43; 46; 49; 56) associated with certain household appliances such as a toilet system (12) and adapted to monitor the vital information passively in response to the use thereof in connection with routine living activities of the individuals. The system may further include control devices (39; 46; 49; 56) associated with certain household appliances, such as an ergometer (15), having health care and maintenance functions and adapted to control the appliances based on the vital information monitored by the testing and measuring instruments in the system. In one embodiment wherein the system is arranged in the centralized network configuration, the testing and measuring instruments and the control devices are connected via a local area network with a data controller (20) wherein all the vital information obtained in the system is stored. Instruments and devices (39; 43; 46; 49; 56) are permitted to access the controller through the network to retrieve necessary vital information therefrom. In another embodiment arranged in the distributed network configuration, the vital information obtained by respective measuring instruments is stored therein and is furnished upon request to the other appliances.