Noteboom The Law Firm

Tampa VA Smart Home Helps Veterans With TBIs

December 17, 2010 - The Tampa, Florida Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital just launched a $3 million initiative focused on helping veterans suffering from Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs). The VA's initiative is a smart home, which uses superior technology to assist veteran/residents to live independently despite suffering from a TBI.

Many people with severe TBIs lose the ability to function on a very basic level, which can make seemingly simple tasks such as emptying the trash a difficult endeavor. The smart home project will help those veterans with TBIs relearn how to perform such simple but necessary tasks. The technology allows the veteran to be followed around the house. If the veteran loses their focus or stops completing their scheduled task, the veteran receives either a video or text reminder to get back on track.

There are currently 5 apartments that have been modified with state-of-the-art technology to become smart homes, and those apartments house 10 veterans. The technology includes:

• Advanced patient tracking and locating systems;
• Appliance monitoring sensors; and
• Screens to be used for the video reminders.

VA staff members and clinicians can use smart phones, iPads, etc. to track veterans while they proceed through their daily schedules in the apartments and can pinpoint their location to approximately 6 inches from where they are. Clinicians can send text or video messages to the veterans giving them guidance throughout the day to help them with their routine. Additionally, all appliances in the apartment can detect if they are being used properly. If they are not, veterans will receive prompts telling them to correct their steps.

TBIs are a very new phenomenon to the military, its soldiers, and the VA. Accordingly, the smart house is a brand new treatment for those veterans with TBIs. The ultimate goal of the smart house is to prepare veterans to be able to live a functional life outside the smart house.