A recent review focused on ways to motivate the elderly and chronically ill to use computers in order to learn how to better manage health problems.
It focused on health IT systems where patients or consumers interact with the technology and receive patient-specific information in return. These include home monitoring systems with interactive disease management or self-management technology, educational or decision aid software tailored to the patient's needs, online patient support groups, tailored health reminder systems where interactions are linked with personal health records, and patient-physician e-mail systems.
The elderly were defined in the study as those with a mean age greater than 65 years; the chronically ill as those with conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mental illness; and the underserved as minorities, low-income populations and those living in medically underserved geographic regions.
The review was directed by lead investigator Holly Jimison, Ph.D., an associate professor of medical informatics and clinical epidemiology, OHSU School of Medicine.
What will motivate the elderly, the chronically ill and the medically underserved to use interactive information technology systems to actively help manage their own health problems?
No comments:
Post a Comment