%0 Journal Article
%T Technological Approaches to Remote Monitoring of Elderly People in Cardiology: A Usability Perspective
%A Susanna Spinsante
%A Roberto Antonicelli
%A Ilaria Mazzanti
%A Ennio Gambi
%J International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/104561
%X Moving from the experience gained in home telemonitoring of elderly patients with Congestive Heart Failure, that confirmed a reduction of the rehospitalization rate and an improved monitoring of drugs assumption by the patients, this paper extends the evaluation of technological approaches for remote health monitoring of older adults. Focus of the evaluation is on telemedicine effectiveness and usability, either from a patient¡¯s or a medical operator¡¯s perspective. The evaluation has been performed by testing three remote health platforms designed according to different technological approaches, in a realistic scenario involving older adults and medical operators (doctors and nurses). The aim of the testing activity was not to benchmark a specific solution with respect to the others, but to evaluate the main positive and negative issues related to the system and service design philosophy each solution was built upon. Though preliminary, the results discussed in the paper can be used as a set of guidelines in the selection of proper technological equipments for services targeted to elderly users, from a usability perspective. These results need to be complemented with more focused discussions of the ethical, medical, and legal aspects of the use of technology in remote healthcare. 1. Introduction The impact of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) on the healthcare sector is a double-face phenomenon. On one hand, many effective and significant advances are continuously taking place, especially in the field of medical treatments, and devices designed for their delivery. Also the management of medical data and patients¡¯ records is experiencing a kind of digital revolution; thanks to the widespread introduction of the electronic health record to gradually replace traditionally heterogeneous, and often partially hand-processed, data management services. On the other hand, however, although appropriate technology is available, a very limited spreading of remote health monitoring solutions is evidenced, especially among those users that could really benefit from it, such as elderly people or physically disabled people. Since several years, research studies and projections show that most of the developed countries are experiencing a demographic shift [1]; as an example, the life expectancy for males and females in Europe has increased from 45.7 and 49.6 to 75.0 and 79.9 years, respectively, in less than a century. Looking at long-term projections, the process of ageing is set to increase at an even faster pace; moreover, there is a growing concern
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijta/2012/104561/