This is a topic to explore for me, as I’m not there yet. Plus at the time of writing this we’re not worried about stuff too much (yet). I have two train of thoughts on reporting and data:

1. If you need this, is it too late and need to look at assisted living options?
   Or
2. Is this a way to figure out where things are at and plan for the next steps?

I will dig into this later in the year but want to share some mental ramblings on gathering data on what happens around the house:

• Data is gold. Nothing gets improved unless we know what we’re dealing with
• Can the Alzheimer’s patient’s data from their smart devices answer key questions like:
  • Eating 3 times per day?
  • Leaving doors open?
  • Leaves the home and at what frequency? For how long? Some like to wander.
  • Sleeps at night?
  • Etc.

So a few more things about what to do with said data:

• Share it with caregivers in reports which can be emailed but make it readable by 4th graders. No I’m not being insulting, the reality is that the simpler the information is conveyed as, the better it can be used.
• Share it is a dashboard with tools like Grafana (yes we’re in deep geek territory). An easy to read dashboard available on a smartphone with metrics which can help and are actionable.
• Etc. and other crazy ideas.

Now how to gather data? You need to go to the more “advanced” hubs like SmartThings, Hubitat and Home Assistant. The non-geeks will need some help to get this in place, don’t be shy and ask if you feel this will benefit your situation, the resources page of this site is a good place to start along with IFTTT to interconnect systems. Don’t ask me on this topic I’m sporting my new car smell.

Right now we have an Amazon Echo speaker which does not enable me to do these things but we’re not there yet so we’ll see what the future holds. I might never get there depending on how fast the disease progresses after all but though it a fun thing to bring up nonetheless. But if I can connect the Echo to to a Home Assistant hub then I can make something happen I think. More to come!