Feasibility of Wearable Devices and AI in End-of-Life Care
delirium, death, illness
Based on the feedback from our users, caregivers play a crucial role in the operation of these devices, as many of our patients were too weak to operate the devices as their illness progressed. However, to our surprise, many of them had no difficulty using the devices and expressed willingness to participate in similar studies in the future. Despite this, the results showed that, in the 38 patients who passed away during their follow-up time, only 28 (74%) out of wore their devices until 7 days before their death. This suggests that there are still many situations in which wearable devices become a burden for patients at the end of their lives. For example, patients may continuously try to remove the devices when they are in a delirium state. Another scenario is that when patients need to be admitted to the hospital, their family caregivers may not be able to stay with them and help charge the device or update the data. In 1 instance, although uncommon in end-of-life care, a caregiver reported having to remove the device because the patient had intravenous catheters on both hands while in the hospital. These issues highlight the limitations of the device hardware for these patients, but we expect these limitations to decrease as wearable technology continues to advance in size, form, and function.