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IMPACT 0500: HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE EARLY DETECTION OF FALLS AMONG SENIORS

Youth Action Challenge (YAC) is a platform for youth to provide solutions that tackle the issues we are concerned about. Since October 2021, over 80 teams and more than 310 youths have undertaken the YAC Season 3 journey.

Hong Wei is one of the team members of HomePal, where they aim to bring technology into nursing and residential homes to provide early detection for fall incidents among seniors. Today he shares more about the project!

What was your role within your YAC project?

I served as the team lead and led the product development. In my capacity as the team lead, I worked closely with our project partners to understand their organisational needs to see how our solution could add value to their solution. As the lead of the product development team, we brought in like-minded students who love to tinker and build a solution.

What motivated you to join YAC?

YAC provided us with mentorship and learning opportunities to reflect and understand what our team stood for. They also helped us shape our project to meaningfully impact the community that we want to serve. We joined YAC because of its network of organisations, individuals and teams that helped us get connected to look for the resources needed.

Can you share with us your experience with your YAC project?

HomePal had been a very enriching project and it was incredible seeing how it scaled from a passion project into what it is today. During our time working on this project, it was heartening to see how our solution resonated with the people and organisation that we talked to. It made us realise that it is a much-needed solution now and in the future. This badge of affirmation from partners and mentors motivated us to realise our solution so that they could use it to make a difference in the lives of others.

What are some challenges you faced while working on your YAC project?

HomePal is a technology driven solution. The main challenge working on this project was to make sure that the solution met the needs of the society. Having the framework to help us understand market needs allowed us to streamline our product development—minimising the wastage of resources from chasing a feature that users might not require.

Could you share more on how your project has a positive impact?

HomePal wants to create a fall detection system that can be used in both nursing and residential homes. Using Machine Learning, we can accurately detect falls when they happen. When an incident is detected, we ping the alert to the relevant caregivers to prompt them to attend to the patient. With AI-enabled verification, we help to minimise false alarms for caregivers, so that they will not have to be flooded by alerts.

Were there any key takeaways or learning points from your time with YAC?

YAC made us realise the importance of building an ecosystem of stakeholders. It made us realise that the end users are not our only stakeholder. Only in bringing together organisations, government agencies, NGOs and individuals can we truly realise the impact of our solution.