Macnica (hereinafter referred to as Macnica) is a total service/solution provider in semiconductors, networks, cybersecurity, and AI/IoT (Head office location: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, President: Kazumasa Hara, capital: 11,194 million yen) has jointly developed a nursing care monitoring system with EarlySense, Ltd. (Head Office: Ramat Gan, Israel, CEO: Matt Johnson), an Israeli medical bed sensor manufacturer, to support the nursing care business in an aging society. We will begin providing solutions to reduce the burden on people. In addition, for this development, Unimat Retirement Community Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Unimat RC, capital: 100 million yen, head office location: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President Kiyohiko Nakagawa) jointly conducted demonstration experiments at nursing care facilities operated nationwide. We conducted product development that reflected the demands from the field regarding system functions and usability.

This nursing care monitoring solution consists of three elements.
・Sensor part: Detects the heartbeat, breathing, and body movement of the user on the bed
・Cloud part: Processes vital data acquired by the sensor to predict early getting out of bed, prediction of sudden abnormalities in breathing and heartbeat, etc.
・User interface part: Notifies the caregiver of the above abnormalities and how to deal with them, and records the details of the actions with a single click.

Of these elements, "NooMi* ¹" developed by Early Sense will implement the sensor and cloud components, and "AttentiveConnect* ²" developed by Macnica will implement the user interface component.

The vital data processing algorithms in the sensor and cloud sections are based on those that EarlySense has provided to medical institutions for over 10 years, and are highly reliable. Furthermore, by processing vital data on the cloud rather than inside the sensor, we can significantly reduce the hardware costs incurred during installation.

Installation of the sensor is completed by simply plugging the power into an AC outlet and placing the sensor under the mattress. Since it is automatically connected to the cloud on the Internet via Wi-Fi, it can be easily handled by on-site staff.

The user interface section has been designed to be intuitively understandable without the use of training or user guides, based on feedback from caregivers obtained through demonstration experiments with Unimat RC. The latest cloud technology is fully adopted for the user interface, sensor and user management backend, and operations can be performed on any device that runs a web browser, creating a more flexible monitoring system.

In an aging society that continues to progress, social issues are expected to become more serious, such as a shortage of nursing care personnel, increased burdens, and associated increased risks in nursing care settings. In response, various systems and solutions are being developed for nursing care providers, and improving service quality and efficiency using IoT has become a government policy issue, but it is still in the dissemination phase. has not yet been achieved. Particularly in nursing care settings, which are busy with many tasks, major barriers to widespread use include not having enough time to learn new systems, and the fact that economic effects are difficult to quantify. However, it can be said that the situation requires major changes due to measures against the new coronavirus infection. While improving the quality of monitoring, we can make great strides in realizing a contactless environment at nursing care sites.

Macnica and Unimat RC have been jointly conducting demonstration experiments for the past two years at 12 facilities nationwide operated by Unimat RC, and have confirmed that the cutting-edge vital sensing technology can be used from the day it is installed at nursing care sites, and that the effects of its introduction have been confirmed. We have been working on commercialization with the aim of being able to confirm quantitatively.

Starting with sales in Japan in early October, Macnica will be in charge of Asia and South America, and Early Sense will be in charge of North America and Europe, and we plan to proceed with global expansion. There are very few examples of Israeli and Japanese companies collaborating on mutually specialized technologies and developing business on a global scale, and Macnica is taking this initiative to globalize the global expansion of its healthcare and nursing care IoT sensor platform. I would like to use this as a stepping stone.

*1: NooMi
This is a new product developed by Early Sense for nursing homes. By diverting the technology developed for medical use, we will provide higher precision technology at a price that is easy for nursing care providers to implement.

*2: AttentiveConnect
This is a platform developed by Macnica that integrates cloud-based monitoring sensors for nursing care providers. In addition to displaying information from connected sensors in real time, it can also accumulate various data and connect it to the user's health care. In addition to realizing collaboration/integration with a variety of sensors, it is also possible to collaborate with other medical/nursing care equipment, web services, etc. through internet connection.

*Company names and product names mentioned in the text are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.