Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is listed by the World Health Organization as one of the five intractable diseases. It damages motor neurons, and as the disease progresses, patients gradually lose their ability to move, eat, speak, and even breathe in just a few years, with the disease eventually taking their lives. During this process, patients are awake and conscious, as if watching their bodies gradually freeze. According to statistics, half of the patients with ALS will die within 3 years, and 90% don’t live past 5 years. How to prolong the lifespan and improve the quality of life of people with ALS is a global medical and social issue.

In February 2022, the SenseTime Intelligent Nursing System, developed by SenseTime and the Shanghai AI Laboratory, was officially delivered to its first patient. This set of products for ALS patients brings peace of mind and convenience to patients and their families.

The Intelligent AI Nursing System

The SenseTime Intelligent Nursing System is a new technical solution for the care of ALS patients that can provide contactless care for patients with limited mobility and difficulty swallowing and breathing. The system employs multi-spectral imaging sensors unaffected by lighting conditions and can function for 24 hours without interruption. Moreover, it provides a non-invasive and non-contact way of monitoring physiological indicators for ALS patients. By collecting physiological information such as the radiation intensity of the patient’s shell temperature and the degree of chest fluctuation, physiological indicators such as the patient’s body temperature, respiratory rate, and heart rate can be quickly and accurately identified.

Compared with traditional medical equipment, which usually monitors physiological indicators by attaching electrodes and through other invasive methods, this non-contact monitoring frees ALS patients from the need to wear other auxiliary tools, thus avoiding possible skin allergies and sores or low monitoring resistance and inaccurate signals that can result from long-term bed rest, malnutrition, and low skin moisture. SenseTime Intelligent Nursing System can also provide contactless active call function for critically ill patients who have lost the ability to speak and move. For example, through a series of predefined actions based on highly receptive AI technology, the care recipient can send out active call signals through their mouth, eye, or facial movements with no voice and a fixed posture.

In addition, the SenseTime Intelligent Nursing System is also more convenient for caregivers. The system employs computer vision analysis technology to continuously monitor the patient’s physiological indicators, wake/sleep status, and count information such as sleep duration and wake-up times and generate a sleep quality analysis report for the caregiver to adjust the nursing plan in a timely manner. With the dedicated display terminal, the caregiver can also remotely view the status of the care recipient anytime, anywhere, and in real time. The system continuously records the physiological indicators of the care recipient and records anything abnormal.

In June 2022, SenseTime collaborated with the Shaanxi ALS Association to carry out “AI warm ‘ASL’ care” activities and provided the Intelligent Nursing System for public welfare to families in Xi'an, Xingping, Weinan, Yanchuan, and a number of other places in Shaanxi Province.

The incidence of ALS is relatively low, but there are many other diseases, such as stroke, cerebral palsy, and Alzheimer’s disease, exhibiting similar symptoms, In addition, the overall health of the elderly in China is not ideal. More than 180 million elderly people suffer from chronic diseases, with the proportion of those suffering from one or more chronic diseases as high as 75%. Approximately 40 million elderly people are disabled or partially disabled, accounting for 18.3% of the elderly population. At the same time, there are only 300,000 elderly care workers, making for an absolutely unbreachable gap. These larger groups are equally eager to attain a greater quality of life and to be treated with more dignity. SenseTime is committed to enabling Intelligent Nursing System to provide nursing services for more patients suffering from other diseases who are incapacitated or bedridden for a long time, or for the elderly, so as to improve their quality of life. (This case has been recommended and provided by SenseTime)