TWI611368B - Telehealth care system and method using thermal imaging - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a thermal imaging remote care system electrically connected to a remote care station and used for monitoring the state of a patient, which comprises an infrared camera, an image processing module and an analysis module. By analyzing the temperature data of the thermal image taken by the infrared camera to determine whether the patient has a vomiting event or a wet/deficient event.

Description

Thermal imaging remote care system and method

The present invention relates to a thermal imaging remote care system and method. More specifically, the present invention is a temperature data of an image taken by an infrared camera to determine whether a patient has a vomiting event or a wet urine. / Remote care system and method for defecation events.

In recent years, Taiwan has become an aging society, and in the case of an increasing number of patients on the pillow (that is, patients whose daily life needs to use the bed as the main activity range), in the face of an aging society, how to care for and manage patients will It is an extremely important challenge.

In addition, in hospitals, ward management and care of patients is often the main job of nursing staff. Therefore, medical personnel usually need to patrol the room for a certain period of time to see that the patient has no abnormalities. However, this method is a passive patrol house management service. When the patient has vomiting or incontinence and other situations that require urgent treatment, the medical staff It is difficult to find it immediately, or it is found that the time for reprocessing will be too long or too late, so it is easy to miss the golden time of disposal.

Furthermore, medical staff need to manually record the time of occurrence of vomiting or incontinence in each patient. When the medical staff is busy taking care of the patient, it undoubtedly increases the burden on the medical staff. Therefore, the quality of medical care for each patient is greatly reduced, and if the medical staff does not file the situation of each patient, it is more difficult for the doctor to track the condition of each patient.

At present, the remote care system needs to identify various parts of the human body, such as human body recognition or face recognition, so the system specifications are high, and it takes time and a large amount of system resources to identify the image. In view of the above problems, there is an urgent need for a remote care system that can automatically detect when an event occurs, digitize the medical record, and proactively notify the event.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal imaging remote care system that is electrically coupled to a remote care station and used to monitor the status of a patient, including an infrared camera, an image processing module, and an analysis module. The infrared camera is placed on the peripheral side of the patient and is configured to capture thermal images of the area of interest associated with the patient. The image processing module is coupled to the infrared camera and receives the thermal image, and converts the thermal image into temperature data, which defines the relationship of temperature to position in the region of interest. The analysis module is electrically connected to the image processing module and configured to sample a temperature interest region from a critical interest region in a predetermined temperature range, and the analysis module is configured to determine whether a temperature to time change rate in the key interest region exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate, wherein if the analysis module determines that the rate of change of temperature to time exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate, the analysis module samples the area of the area exceeding the predetermined temperature change rate, and determines the change of the area of the area to time. Whether the rate is above a predetermined area change rate, and if so, the analysis module generates an event alert associated with the patient and transmits it to the remote care station.

Preferably, the rate of change of temperature versus time can be the amount of temperature change in the time interval divided by the time interval, and the time interval is much smaller than the respiratory rate of the patient.

Preferably, the predetermined temperature range may include at least one of the intra-day body temperature change ranges of the patient, and the predetermined temperature change rate is approximately one of the patient's intra-day average body temperature change rates.

Preferably, the region of interest may include the head of the patient and the event alert may be an alarm for a vomiting event.

Preferably, the region of interest may include the lower body of the patient, and after the analysis module determines that the rate of change of temperature to time exceeds a predetermined rate of temperature change, the analysis module may directly generate a urine wet/deficient event alarm associated with the patient and transmit To the remote care station.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a thermal imaging distal care method is provided for use in the aforementioned thermal imaging remote care system, the method comprising the steps of: capturing an image of a region of interest of a patient with an infrared camera Receiving a thermal image by the image processing module, and converting the thermal image into temperature data, the temperature data defining a temperature-to-position relationship in the region of interest; and analyzing the key interest region of the module from the temperature data in a predetermined temperature range; The analysis module is configured to determine whether the temperature-to-time change rate in the key interest area exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate; if the analysis module determines that the temperature-to-time change rate exceeds the predetermined temperature change rate, the analysis module is configured to exceed the predetermined temperature change rate. The area of the area is sampled, and it is determined whether the area change ratio of the area of the area is higher than the predetermined area change rate; and if the analysis module determines that the area change ratio of the area of the area is higher than the predetermined area change rate, the analysis mode The group generates an event alert associated with the patient and transmits it to the remote care station.

Preferably, the rate of change of temperature versus time can be the amount of temperature change in the time interval divided by the time interval, and the time interval is much smaller than the respiratory rate of the patient.

Preferably, the predetermined temperature range may include at least one of the range of body temperature changes of the patient within the day.

Preferably, the region of interest may include the head of the patient and the event alert may be an alarm for a vomiting event.

Preferably, the region of interest may include a lower body of the patient, and in the step of the analysis module determining whether the rate of change of temperature versus time exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate, if the analysis module determines that the rate of change of temperature versus time exceeds a predetermined rate of temperature change The analysis module can directly generate a urine wet/deficient event alarm associated with the patient and transmit it to the remote care station.

In summary, the thermal imaging type remote care system and method of the present invention can actively detect the vomiting/urinary of the patient by analyzing the temperature data of the thermal image while using the minimum computer system resources. Wet/defecation events, and then notify the health care provider for treatment. In addition, it does not require time and a large amount of system resources to identify the image. In addition to eliminating the labor of medical staff, it can also carry out digital medical records and automatic archiving to help doctors understand the treatment effect and disease development, and further improve the quality of medical care.

1‧‧‧ Thermal imaging remote care system

10‧‧‧Infrared Thermal Imager

11‧‧‧Infrared sensor

12‧‧‧Image Processing Module

14‧‧‧Analysis module

16‧‧‧ patients

18‧‧‧Remote care station

20‧‧‧ processor

22‧‧‧Database

24‧‧‧ medical staff

25‧‧‧Portable device

26‧‧‧Wireless base station

SROI _C ‧‧‧Key Interest Area

SROI _F ‧‧‧Changed area

ST _min ‧‧‧minimum temperature point

ST _max ‧‧‧ highest temperature point

Temp _area ‧‧‧zone temperature

Temp _pixel ‧‧‧pixel temperature

TROI‧‧‧Interest time zone

t _T ‧‧‧ total detection time

L _N *M _N , Li*Mi‧‧‧ pixel area

x ₀ , y ₀ ‧‧‧ coordinates

△T‧‧‧temperature difference

△t _p ‧‧‧ time interval

S701-710, S801-S808‧‧‧ steps

The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description of the exemplary embodiments of the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a thermal imaging remote care system according to the present invention. A block diagram of the first embodiment.

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the thermal imaging of a thermal imaging remote care system in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 is a three dimensional schematic representation of temperature data generated by a thermal imaging remote care system in accordance with the present invention for thermal image generation.

Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of regional temperature sampling of pixels of a thermal image in accordance with the thermal imaging distal care system of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic illustration of a thermal imaging of a thermal imaging remote care system in accordance with the present invention when a vomiting event occurs.

Figure 6 is a temperature vs. time profile of the thermographic remote care system for temperature data analysis in accordance with the present invention when a vomiting event occurs.

Figure 7 is a schematic illustration of the thermal imaging of the thermal imaging remote care system in accordance with the present invention when a urinary/defecation event occurs.

Figure 8 is a temperature vs. time profile of the thermal imaging distal care system for temperature data analysis in accordance with the present invention when a urinary/defecation event occurs.

Figure 9 is a flow chart showing a first embodiment of a thermal imaging distal care method in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 10 is a flow chart showing a second embodiment of the thermal imaging distal care method according to the present invention.

The technical features, contents, and advantages of the present invention, as well as the advantages thereof, can be understood by the present inventors, and the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The subject matter is only for the purpose of illustration and description. It is not intended to be a true proportion and precise configuration after the implementation of the present invention. Therefore, the scope and configuration relationship of the attached drawings should not be interpreted or limited. First described.

As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. When the phrase "at least one of" is preceded by a list of elements, the entire list of elements is modified instead of the individual elements in the list.

Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram of a first embodiment of a thermal imaging distal care system in accordance with the present invention. As shown, a thermal imaging distal care system 1 is provided that is electrically coupled to the distal care station 18 and that is used to monitor the status of the patient 16. The thermal imaging remote care system 1 includes an infrared camera 10, an image processing module 12, and an analysis module 14. The infrared sensor 11 of the infrared camera 10 can be disposed on the peripheral side of the patient and configured to capture thermal images within the region of interest (SROI _T ) associated with the patient. The image processing module 12 is connected to the infrared camera 10 and receives the thermal image, and converts the thermal image into temperature data, which defines the relationship between the temperature and the position in the region of interest. An example of this will be matched with the second and third figures below. Detailed description.

The analysis module 14 is electrically connected to the image processing module 12 and configured to sample a critical region of interest (SROIC) in a predetermined temperature range from the temperature data. Preferably, the image processing module 12 and the analysis module 14 can be commonly used in the field as a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a network processor (NP: Network Processor), and a micro processor. The controller or the integrated circuit (IC) having a dedicated function may be provided separately or may share the same function of both.

Please refer to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, which are respectively a schematic diagram of sampling of thermal images by the thermal imaging type far-end care system according to the present invention and a three-dimensional diagram of temperature data generated for thermal images.

In general, since all objects with temperatures above absolute zero (about -273 ° C) will generate infrared radiant heat due to their molecular motion. The infrared camera 10 can convert radiant energy that cannot be seen by the human eye, for example, Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) with a wavelength of 8 micrometers to 12 micrometers into electrical signals, and display them in various colors. The distribution of different temperatures causes the entire temperature distribution to be displayed as a thermal image. As shown in the figure, the image processing module 12 can divide the entire region of interest SROI _T into a plurality of pixel regions in a two-dimensional distribution. For example, the entire thermal image can be divided into L by the X axis and the Y axis. _N * M _N pixel regions, in which the region can be analyzed for a specific region, such as Li * Mi pixels in the figure, and the (x ₀ , y ₀ ) pixel in the figure can have temperature information in the pixel Corresponding to the position coordinates (x ₀ , y ₀ ).

Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a schematic diagram of regional temperature sampling of pixels of a thermal image according to the thermal imaging remote care system of the present invention. Specifically, each pixel is in a preset total detection time t _T of the system-predetermined interest time region TRIO, and the pixel temperature Temp _pixel can be expressed as

Where t is time, k is a positive integer greater than 0, n is the time interval Δt _p of the sampling, the total number of detected temperatures, Temp _k (t) is located at the corresponding pixel position (x _i , y _i ) The temperature detected at time t. Therefore, the region temperature Temp _area corresponding to the above-described temperature detection for the specific pixel region L _S × M _S can be expressed as

Where i, j, k are positive integers greater than 0, L _S ≦ L _N , M _S ≦ M _N , when L _S = M _S =1, the region temperature Temp _area = pixel temperature Temp _pixel . Therefore, the user can adjust the size of the individual pixels according to the resolution of the thermal image, the number of detections per unit time of the infrared camera, and the processing power of the system, so as to further reduce the use of system resources and the burden on the system, and can also be improved. System processing speed.

In addition, through the generated thermal image, according to the temperature data of each pixel, a three-dimensional diagram as shown in FIG. 3 can be generated, and the image processing module 12 can quickly detect the entire temperature surface and identify the highest temperature point ST _max and the minimum. Temperature point ST _min for qualitative and quantitative analysis of temperature.

Please refer to FIG. 5, which is a schematic diagram of sampling of a thermal image according to the thermal imaging type distal care system of the present invention when a vomiting event occurs. As shown, in order to detect a vomiting event, the region of interest SROI _T must contain at least the patient's head, and more preferably, the mouth, the person, etc. where vomit may occur. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the burden on the system, and determine the location where the human body, the analysis module 14 can be removed from the temperature region of interest in the configured SROI _T key area of interest within a predetermined temperature range SROI _C. Here, the predetermined temperature range may include at least one range of the body temperature change of the patient, preferably, the highest temperature point ST _max to the lowest temperature point ST _{max -ΔT} of the patient's daily skin temperature, and the temperature difference ΔT is slightly It is larger than the daily body temperature variation range of the patient, for example, about 1.8 ° C, but is not limited thereto. Predictably, when a vomiting event occurs, a region of temperature change SROI _F in the critical interest area SROI _C appears, and is also an area that must be detected.

Please refer to Fig. 6, which is a graph of temperature vs. time for temperature data analysis of the thermal imaging distal care system according to the present invention when a vomiting event occurs. Following the above figure, after obtaining the temperature data of the key interest area SROI _C , the analysis module 14 can be further configured to determine whether the temperature-to-time change rate of each pixel in the key interest area SROI _C exceeds a predetermined period during a monitoring time. Temperature change rate. Are preferred, the time rate of change of temperature may be a temperature change amount t _p divided within the time interval t _p is the time interval △ △. In order to avoid errors caused by breathing, the time interval Δt _p can be much smaller than the patient's breathing interval. Preferably, for adults, the respiratory rate is about 10-15 times per minute, and for babies it is 20-50 per minute. Times. In other words, two curves can be seen from the figure, one is the temperature of the key interest area of the key interest area SROI _C versus time, and the other is the temperature of the variable area of the variable area SROI _F versus time.

In the absence of a vomiting event, the temperature of the key interest area is the daily temperature curve of the patient, and the temperature change rate is relatively flat, and can be set to a predetermined temperature change rate. When the vomiting event occurs, the temperature of the changing region changes drastically, and the temperature change rate is significantly higher than the temperature change rate of the daily temperature curve. Therefore, the analysis module 14 can determine whether a vomiting event is likely to occur by determining whether the temperature-to-time change rate of each pixel in the key interest area SROI _C exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate during a period of monitoring time. Therefore, if the analysis module determines that the rate of change of the temperature in the critical area of interest SROI _c exceeds the predetermined temperature change rate, the analysis module 14 may sample the area of the area exceeding the predetermined temperature change rate to obtain the variation area SROI _F , And determining whether the rate of change of the area of the variable area SROI _F with respect to time is higher than the predetermined area change rate, and if so, it is known that the patient's face should have a vomit flow, and the analysis module 14 can thereby generate vomit associated with the patient. The event is alerted and transmitted to the remote care station 18.

Please refer to Fig. 7, which is a schematic diagram of sampling of thermal images by the thermal imaging distal care system according to the present invention when a wet/deficient event occurs. As shown, in order to detect a urinary/deficiency event, the region of interest SROI _T must contain at least the lower body of the patient, and more preferably, the diaper or the like where the sputum may be present. Similarly, the analysis module 14 may be configured to SROI _T from the region of interest taken in the region of interest SROI _C critical temperature within a predetermined temperature range. Predictably, when a urinary or defecation event occurs, a variable temperature region SROIF in the critical interest area SROI _C appears, and is also an area that must be detected.

Figure 8 is a graph of temperature versus time for temperature data analysis of a thermal imaging distal care system in accordance with the present invention in the event of a wet/deficient event. Following the above figure, after obtaining the temperature data of the key interest area SROI _C , the analysis module 14 can be further configured to determine whether the temperature-to-time change rate of each pixel in the key interest area SROI _C exceeds a predetermined period during a monitoring time. Temperature change rate. Are preferred, the time rate of change of temperature may be a temperature change amount t _p divided within the time interval t _p is the time interval △ △. In the figure, the temperature of the key interest area of the key interest area SROI _C is omitted, and only the temperature of the variable area of the variable area SROI _F is plotted against time.

When the wet/deficient event occurs, the temperature of the SROI _F variable region changes drastically, and the temperature change rate is significantly higher than the temperature change rate of the daily temperature change curve. Therefore, the analysis module 14 can determine whether there is a possibility of a wet/defecation event by determining whether the temperature-to-time change rate of each pixel in the key interest area SROI _C exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate during a period of monitoring time. Therefore, if the analysis module 14 determines that the rate of change of temperature in time in the critical region of interest SROI _T exceeds a predetermined rate of temperature change, the analysis module 14 may generate a urine wet/deficiency event alarm associated with the patient and transmit it directly to the distal end. Care station 18. In this embodiment, since the patient often wears underpants, diapers, or pants, there may be no fluid flow, and thus the detecting step of the change in the area of the variable area SROI _F may be omitted, but the embodiment is not limited thereto.

In the above embodiment, the remote care station 18 can include the processor 20 and the database 22, and can be configured with a general purpose computer system PC for the purpose of the remote care station 18 when a vomiting event or a wet/defeated event occurs. The event is recorded in the patient's medical record in the database 22 through the processor 20, and the medical staff 24 is generated by the general computer system PC, and the alarm can be transmitted to the medical staff 24 via the wireless base station 26. The device 25, such as a mobile phone or a tablet, notifies the medical staff 24 at a distance, in addition to eliminating the labor of the medical staff, the digital medical record and the automatic filing can also be performed to help the doctor understand the therapeutic effect and the development of the disease, and further improve the quality of medical care.

The steps of the thermal imaging distal care method of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Please refer to FIG. 9, which is a flow chart of a first embodiment of a thermal imaging remote care method according to the present invention.

A first embodiment of the thermal imaging distal care method according to the present invention is applicable to the thermally inductive remote care system of the foregoing embodiments. The method may include the following steps: Step S701: Aligning with an infrared camera The upper half of the patient; step S702: taking a thermal image of the region of interest SROI with an infrared camera; step S703: converting the thermal image into temperature data by the image processing module; step S704: sampling the temperature from the temperature data in the analysis module The SROI _C key interest area of the predetermined temperature range, wherein the system can adjust the upper and lower limits of the predetermined temperature range detected by the infrared camera according to the temperature data (that is, the aforementioned maximum temperature point ST _max and the lowest temperature point ST _min ) to Optimize the accuracy of the infrared camera measurement; Step S705: After the analysis module samples, the temperature-to-time change rate of the SROI _C key interest area is calculated, wherein the temperature change rate R can be the regional temperature change amount ΔTemp _area / time interval △ t _p and the absolute value calculating; step S706: determining whether a key area of interest SROI _C temperature change rate exceeds a predetermined of time The temperature change rate, if yes, proceeds to step S707, and the analysis module is configured to sample the area of the area exceeding the predetermined temperature change rate. If not, return to step S704 to continue sampling the temperature from the temperature data of the analysis module. a key interest area of the predetermined temperature range; step S708: configuring the analysis module to determine whether the area change rate of the area is higher than the predetermined area change rate, and if yes, proceeding to step S709 to generate a vomiting event alarm and transmitting to the far End-care station, if not, returning to step S704, continuing to sample the SROI _C key interest area in the predetermined temperature range from the temperature data by the analysis module; and step S710: after receiving the vomiting event alarm at the remote care station Record the time of the vomiting event through the database and dispatch the staff to dismiss the alarm. Then, returning to step S704, the SROI _C key interest area whose temperature is within a predetermined temperature range is sampled from the temperature data by the analysis module.

Please refer to FIG. 10, which is a flow chart of a second embodiment of the thermal imaging distal care method according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, according to a second embodiment of the thermal imaging distal care method of the present invention, the method may comprise the following steps: Step S801: aligning the patient's lower body with an infrared camera; Step S802: Using an infrared camera Taking a thermal image of the SROI region of interest; step S803: converting the thermal image into temperature data by the image processing module; step S804: sampling the SROI _C key interest region of the temperature within the predetermined temperature range by the analysis module from the temperature data; step S805 After the sampling module samples, the rate of change of temperature in time in the key interest region of SROI _C is calculated, wherein the temperature change rate R can be calculated by taking the regional temperature change amount ΔTemp _area / time interval Δt _p and taking an absolute value; step S806 : determining whether the temperature-to-time change rate in the key interest area exceeds the predetermined temperature change rate, and if yes, proceeding to step S807 to directly generate a wet/defeated event alarm and transmitting to the remote care station, and if not, returning to step S804 , the module continues to analyze the sample temperature from the temperature profile in a predetermined key area of interest in a temperature range SROI _C; and step S808: the distal end After nursing station receives the wet / bowel event alerts through the database record wet / defecation event occurred, and sent the processing of releasing tight reported. Then, returning to step S804, the SROI _C key interest area whose temperature is within a predetermined temperature range is sampled from the temperature data by the analysis module.

In summary, the thermal imaging type remote care system and method of the present invention can actively detect the vomiting/urinary of the patient by analyzing the temperature data of the thermal image while using the minimum computer system resources. Wet/defecation events, and then notify the health care provider for treatment. In addition, it does not require time and a large amount of system resources to identify the image. In addition to eliminating the labor of medical staff, it can also carry out digital medical records and automatic archiving to help doctors understand the treatment effect and disease development, and further improve the quality of medical care.

1‧‧‧ Thermal imaging remote care system

10‧‧‧Infrared Thermal Imager

11‧‧‧Infrared sensor

12‧‧‧Image Processing Module

14‧‧‧Analysis module

16‧‧‧ patients

18‧‧‧Remote care station

20‧‧‧ processor

22‧‧‧Database

24‧‧‧ medical staff

25‧‧‧Portable device

26‧‧‧Wireless base station

Claims (10)

A thermal imaging remote care system electrically coupled to a remote care station for monitoring the status of a patient, comprising: an infrared camera disposed on a peripheral side of the patient, configured to capture a thermal image of an area of interest associated with the patient; an image processing module coupled to the infrared camera and receiving the thermal image, and converting the thermal image into a temperature data defining the region of interest a temperature-to-position relationship; and an analysis module electrically coupled to the image processing module, configured to sample a temperature from the temperature data in a critical interest region of a predetermined temperature range, and the analysis module The configuration module is configured to determine whether the temperature-to-time change rate in the critical interest region exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate, wherein if the analysis module determines that the temperature-to-time change rate exceeds the predetermined temperature change rate, the analysis module is configured to target Sampling the area of the area exceeding the predetermined rate of change of temperature, and determining whether the rate of change of the area of the area to time is higher than a predetermined area change rate If so, then the analysis module generates the patient associated with one event alerts and transmitted to the remote station care. The thermal imaging type far-end care system according to claim 1, wherein the temperature-to-time change rate is a temperature change amount in a time interval divided by the time interval, and the time interval is much smaller than the time interval. The respiratory rate of the patient. The thermal imaging type far-end care system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined temperature range includes at least an intra-body temperature change range of the patient, and the predetermined temperature change rate is an intra-day average body temperature change rate of the patient. . The thermal imaging type far-end care system of claim 1, wherein the The region of interest includes the head of the patient and the event alert is a vomiting event alert. The thermal imaging type distal care system of claim 1, wherein the region of interest comprises a lower body of the patient, and the analysis module determines that the rate of change of temperature versus time exceeds the predetermined rate of temperature change. Thereafter, the analysis module directly generates a urinary/defecation event alert associated with the patient and transmits to the remote care station. A thermal imaging remote care method is applicable to the thermal imaging remote care system described in claim 1, the method comprising the steps of: photographing the region of interest of the patient with the infrared camera Receiving the thermal image by the image processing module, and converting the thermal image into a temperature data, the temperature data defining a temperature-to-position relationship in the region of interest; and sampling the temperature data from the analysis module The temperature is in a key interest area of a predetermined temperature range; the analysis module is configured to determine whether the temperature-to-time change rate in the key interest area exceeds a predetermined temperature change rate; if the analysis module determines the temperature-to-time change If the rate exceeds the predetermined temperature change rate, the analysis module samples the area of the area exceeding the predetermined temperature change rate, and determines whether the area change rate of the area of the area is higher than a predetermined area change rate; and The analysis module determines that the change rate of the area of the area to the time is higher than the predetermined area change rate, and the analysis module generates An event alert associated with the patient is transmitted to the remote care station. The thermal imaging type far-end care method of claim 6, wherein the temperature-to-time change rate is a temperature change amount in a time interval divided by the time The interval is far less than the respiratory rate of the patient. The thermal imaging distal care method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined temperature range comprises at least one of an intra-body temperature change range of the patient. The thermal imaging distal care method of claim 6, wherein the region of interest comprises a head of the patient, and the event alert is a vomiting event alert. The thermal imaging distal care method of claim 6, wherein the region of interest comprises a lower body of the patient, and the analysis module determines whether the temperature-to-time change rate exceeds the predetermined temperature change. In the step of rate, if the analysis module determines that the temperature-to-time change rate exceeds the predetermined temperature change rate, the analysis module directly generates a urine/defecation event alarm associated with the patient and transmits the alarm to the far End care station.