e-Care integration: To meet the demographic challenge.
Current multi-agency models of care will be wholly unsustainable when faced with the forecast doubling of over 65s in the developed and developing nations to around 40% of their populations of the next decades. The resulting imbalance between demand and skilled resources is beginning to force radical change towards a fully "joined up" cross-disciplinary, cross-agency service that spans the wide spectrum of medical and social care. This paper offers a basis for a radically revised model that combines end-to-end service processes optimization; the use of integrated assistive technology systems to help the elderly maintain an independent lifestyle; personal risk reduction through medical and status monitoring; extended care-watch and service co-ordination. It then develops an IPTV based approach to provide the necessary infrastructure to underpin provision of these facilities both at home and in the community. These substantial benefits are reviewed and weighed against the inherent loss of privacy that can result from the pervasive computing aspects of the care watch approach, together with the trust building and change management aspects that are inevitably involved in the rationalisation process.
Manning
Bryan R M
BR
Computing and Compunetics Research Group, Cavendish School of Computer Science, University of Westminster. Bryan.Manning@btinternet.com
McKeon Stosuy
Mary
M
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001331:Automation; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008491:Medical Informatics Applications; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D018511:Systems Integration; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006113:United Kingdom