Designing home health technologies for older adults: the human systems integration approach.

Abstract

From intensive care units with dozens of highly trained healthcare professionals to home healthcare in which patients manage their own health, the modern healthcare system spans many users, tasks, and environments. The home healthcare system is vast and variable, depending on the level of care that each person requires. Our goal is to discuss the human systems integration approach for designing home health technologies for older adults. By understanding user abilities and task demands, and how those factors interact within the home environment, designers can develop technologies that positively impact older adults’ quality of life. For the purposes of demonstrating how the human systems integration approach may be applied to medical device development, the scope of this article has been limited to older adult patients living alone in their homes who need to use a blood pressure monitor. There is an ever increasing need for health technology to migrate into the home environment. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. is facing a tremendous shortage of doctors and nurses. The expansion of healthcare services through the Affordable Care Act, coupled with the growing population of older adults and the large number of primary-care physicians set to retire are cited as contributors to a need for more than 52,000 primary-care doctors by 2025. In addition, nursing home costs have risen from an average of $8,280 per patient per year to an average of $57,600 per patient per year in 2002 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With costs rising rapidly, an affordable option is for older adults to manage their own health at home. Properly designed home health technology can be used to deliver medical care (e.g., oxygen, infusion, dialysis) and monitor health status in real time (e.g., blood pressure, glucose, fall detection), potentially saving both time and money that would otherwise be spent in a doctor’s office or nursing home. The potential benefits of home health technology are numerous. Home health monitoring can alert healthcare professionals to provide proactive care and reduce the likelihood of a hospital visit. Proper health management at home can also reduce the number of days a person stays in the hospital, thereby lowering costs and the probability of contracting a hospital-borne disease. Welldesigned home health technology can also support the goal of older adults’ to maintain their independence. About the Authors