Due to demographic change, the proportion of the elderly population and thus the number of people in the last twelve months of their lives are increasing significantly. By 2035, their number will grow to over one million (source: Federal Statistical Office of Germany). People in this phase of life are particularly in need of attention and care. Many of them would like to spend their last years in their familiar home environment, but the vast majority die in a hospital or other institution.

The main goal is to enable the best possible palliative care by integrating modern technology with the social systems in patients' home environments. To this end, care processes in crisis situations are described as coordinated crisis intervention pathways. Furthermore, the involvement of relatives as well as communication with and between providers is promoted through the use of communication technologies.

For technical support, a home communication platform is being developed that realizes tasks in three areas:

1. Monitoring of medical and nursing relevant data,
2. crisis intervention and
3. communication of the actors.

In this way, crises of the patient are to be preemptively avoided or - in case of occurrence - appropriately mastered, and safety and social integration are to be strengthened. One concrete goal is therefore, for example, the prevention of stressful and unnecessary hospitalization at the end of life.

There are two main models for service use, each independently viable. In the first model, patients are direct customers as self-payers. In the second model, the health insurers are the payers within the framework of specialized outpatient palliative care, in the context of which the creation of new jobs at the participating providers is forced by the project.

The implementation of the care model is exemplarily carried out on two patient groups (see also motivation/target group):

• Patients with lung carcinoma (tumor patients) and
• Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, non-tumor patients).

The project will be carried out between 10/2009 and 09/2012 at OFFIS Health. It is funded by the BMBF. The official website of the project can be found at PAALiativ.

Baumgartner, H.; Eckert, R.; Helmer, A.; Brell, M.; Hein, A. (2012): User Interfaces for a Medical Communication Platform. Proc. of 5. Deutscher AAL-Kongress, Berlin, Deutschland, 24.-25. Januar 2012, Paper 3.3, 5 pages.

Gaefke, C.; Baumgartner, H.; Brell, M.; Hein, A. (2011): System Architecture for Palliative Care in the Home Environment. In Proceedings 4th Congress on Ambient Assisted Living (R. Wichert and B. Eberhardt, Eds.), Springer Verlag, pp. 103-116.

Frenken, T.; Baumgartner, H.; Scheve, Ch.; Meyer, J.; Ulbts J.; Hein, A. (2010): Selbstbestimmt im letzten Lebensjahr: AAL-Technologien im Kontext der End-of-Life-Care. Tagungsband des 3. Deutschen AAL-Kongresses 2010, Paper 1.5, 5 Seiten.