Ageing and technology (carers only)

Ageing and technology (carers only)

1. Main problems for an effective exploitation of ICT in the “elderly community”

As main issue, the carers pointed out the poor digital literacy among the elderly, closely connected also with the problem they expect elderly will have to follow technical innovations, and the lack of ICT tools specifically designed for elderly. In addition, carers also pointed out that not enough dedicated services are already available, thus also reducing the take-up of ICT by elderly.

Carers do see a great importance in the usage of OASIS web services, and then especially the health coach, medication planner and the health monitoring and alerting web services. In addition, also the offering of news is seen as important, as well as the environmental control.

Carers are in favour of extending the working life of the elderly– after retirement – by promoting remote work among them. However this is to be subject to specific conditions.

This finding is in contradiction with the findings among elderly who had a rather negative attitude towards remote working. Knowing this, this negative attitude could be curbed by organising information sessions, while also explaining in a detailed but accessible manner the concept of remote working.
Benefits remote patient monitoring and management could have for the healthcare system and for the carers



Figure 60: Vision of carers regarding the benefits remote patient monitoring and management could have for the healthcare system and for the carers

A better quality of care overall and a timely alerting in case of emergency situations are considered as being the biggest benefits for remote patient monitoring and management. Overall, respondents in all countries were quite positive towards the concept of remote monitoring.

A similar positive approach was seen regarding the positive impact on healthcare of certain services with specific focus on elderly management:

Digitalisation of medical data, the usage of RFID technology and the usage of assistive technology were mainly considered having a positive impact on healthcare with specific focus on elderly management.

5. Summary of user requirements

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  Working among elderly is still a reality in many of the pilot countries, thus improving their working environment should be a main goal. Barrier is however that online platforms (to improve their working conditions) are relatively unknown, and thus also not preferred by the elderly. Adequate training will be necessary here, taking however also into account that e-learning platforms are hardly used, nor is there considerable interest in using them.
  
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  Independent travelling is a must for elderly, and while they tend to badly prepare themselves for a trip, they do use their mobile phones during their trip to find extra information. Public as well as private transport is used quite generally, albeit that a number of barriers are being identified. Provision of adequate time tables, delays, etc. is considered being one of the main problems, often resulting in disrupted travel itineraries.
  
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  A main technical issue is the total absence of open source technology usage among interviewees. Thus, development could focus mainly on mainstream platforms, while giving priority for usage via mobile devices, as this is the most commonly used communication device by all elderly in all countries.
  
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  Carers are overally very positive towards the possibilities of technologies, and are very keen on improving the independence of elderly. Resistance to new technologies (by elderly) is however something the project will be faced with. It will therefore be necessary to set up adequate training approaches. Merely depending on e-learning will not be enough. Instead, local training workshops will be required, and in many cases also face-to-face training sessions.