ADTRAN, a leading provider of next-generation open networking solutions, today announced that through its highly successful Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, it is empowering Ting Internet to deliver gigabit connectivity throughout its Mid-Atlantic and Southeast territory, including its recent rollout in Westminster, Maryland. Through a project with the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory (MAGIC) Smart Homes in Westminster, Ting is helping to provide gigabit broadband to two MAGIC Smart Homes for individuals living with disabilities in Carroll County, Maryland. These extraordinary MAGIC Smart Homes will have sensors installed that can collect health measurements, as well as behavioral data that will help health specialists draw conclusions about how to improve quality of life and ensure safety inside the home. The intelligent MAGIC Smart Homes move “smart homes” well beyond a concept to a reality that will help improve lives and enable individuals to “age in place.”
“Applying smart home technology to healthcare monitoring will help us improve the quality of life, ensure safety in the home, and provide much needed medical data to our community’s health providers,” said Dr. Robert Wack of MAGIC. “Ting Internet’s and ADTRAN’s roles in helping to develop a scalable fiber network to Westminster ensure the routing of this health data is highly secure, reliable and instantaneous.”
MAGIC has developed the Smart Home project as an innovative collaboration utilizing broadband-enabled technologies in a residential setting. The homes will gather a wide variety of data, provide intelligent monitoring, analysis and alerts as well as enable remote healthcare to make a measurable positive impact on the quality of life for residents. The MAGIC Smart Home project aims to combine telemedicine and patient data collected to decrease emergency department visits, unplanned medical appointments and staff time spent on non-scheduled medical care for fragile-health populations.
“As we continue to expand our service area, having the opportunity to witness first-hand how gigabit speeds can impact an individual’s quality of life in every aspect has been eye-opening,” said Adam Eisner, VP of networks at Ting Internet. “The applications that are benefiting from gigabit speeds continue to push the limits and do what traditionally was thought to be unachievable. The lives that the MAGIC Smart Home project is improving are proof of how broadband transforms communities.”
Two residential homes for adults with intellectual disabilities will be connected through a variety of sensors to an intelligent integration platform, which will collect data, analyze, report and alert in real time. For patients with chronic health conditions, this technology allows for daily monitoring of vital signs that can be securely uploaded to their primary care physician. If needed, a secure connection across the network supports a video-enabled physician visit without the patient needing to leave their home. The system also provides administrative support to staff while still performing typical smart home functions with mechanical system and appliance management.
“Communities are transformed when high-speed internet enters their city limits, and the benefits to education and business are certainly impactful. This use case also delves into new territory,” said Brian Efimetz, senior director of sales for SP North at ADTRAN. “Providing the broadband access to support the level of connected sensors and devices necessary to monitor and ultimately improve patients’ health – that is very exciting to be a part of.”