ExpliCareNEXT: Intelligent assistance for care – progress at first hand

ExpliCareNEXT is developing an explanatory AI-based assistance system specifically for home care. The overarching goal is to significantly reduce the workload of care staff and ensure a high quality of care, especially when inexperienced staff or career changers enter the profession.

The consistent involvement of future users is at the forefront of system development. To this end, nursing staff were interviewed and observations directly from everyday nursing care were integrated. In co-creation workshops, the needs and experiences of the nursing staff were transferred directly into the system design. On this basis, detailed use cases have already been defined and initial mock-ups for the user interface of the assistance system have been created. These early drafts provide a concrete insight into how the system can provide guidance during personal hygiene or organize care tasks, for example.

The ongoing system development integrates central AI components such as multilingual speech recognition and synthesis as well as the integration of chatbots. These technologies are designed to recognize the need for support and generate event-driven instructions based on data from care documentation and sensors.

The connection to the SmartLivingNEXT data room is central to secure and trustworthy data exchange. This enables, for example, smart home data – from motion detectors to lighting control – to be linked with data from everyday care, such as medication information. This enables a holistic view of people’s needs, which makes everyday care easier.

For Enrico Löhrke from inHaus GmbH, who heads the ExpliCareNEXT consortium, close cooperation with users is crucial: “For us, one thing is clear from the outset: practical AI assistance for care can only be developed together with those who will later use it – the care staff. Their needs and experiences are the foundation for ExpliCareNEXT.” This approach aims to create acceptance and reduce reservations.

Once the system design has been completed, a first version of the overall system is planned for evaluation, initially in laboratory environments and later in real everyday use.

By simplifying processes and providing support during induction, ExpliCareNEXT is designed to give professionals more time for human interaction. It is an important step in addressing the shortage of skilled nursing staff with intelligent solutions.