Abstract
Virtual healthcare information technologies (HIT) are being adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic. We propose that even after Covid-19, virtual HIT can still have great potentials to address the challenges brought by the aging population on healthcare systems. The key questions are (1) what kinds of virtual HIT will be useful for seniors and (2) how these HIT will affect senior citizens’ health-related quality of life (HRQL)? Centered on the concept of HRQL and grounded on task-technology fit (TTF) theory, this paper builds a framework of useful virtual HIT in the context of long-term care for seniors. The framework proposes senior citizens’ human characteristics (i.e. restricted mobility, deteriorated working memory and attention, and social isolation) will influence their health-related tasks (task adaptability, autonomy, and interdependence). A set of virtual healthcare systems can be designed to fit seniors’ tasks. These HIT will increase seniors’ HRQL through increased task-technology fit (i.e. quality of healthcare, timeliness of healthcare, and relationships with seniors). This framework can serve as a base for researchers and practitioners in their endeavor to design more suitable HIT for seniors.
Highlights
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, ready or not, most people including senior citizens have to use some virtual healthcare information technology (HIT)
Deterioration of working memory function and attention, lack of social connections, accompanying with living conditions and unhealthy lifestyle, senior citizens find it more difficult to access high-quality health assistance they need than younger people
We introduce a conceptual framework from the human-computer interaction (HCI) perspective and provide suggestions on information system design elements
Summary
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, ready or not, most people including senior citizens have to use some virtual healthcare information technology (HIT). In the information systems discipline, research has shown that proper and adequate internet-based intervention (i.e. virtual HIT) can improve senior people’s health care quality and quality of life (Marchand, Kettinger, & Rollins, 2000; Berg, 2001; Park & Jayaraman, 2003; Ash et al, 2004; Vogt et al, 2015). This paper aims to contribute by designing a framework of virtual healthcare information technology for senior people These proposed healthcare information technologies are expected to help with healthy aging and improve the senior’s quality of life. This framework can serve as a base for researchers and practitioners in their endeavor to design more suitable HIT for seniors. Contributions, Limitations and future work are described
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