Abstract
BackgroundThe increase in life expectancy and recent advancements in technology and medical science have changed the way we deliver health services to the aging societies. Evidence suggests that home telemonitoring can significantly decrease the number of readmissions, and continuous monitoring of older adults’ daily activities and health-related issues might prevent medical emergencies.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this review was to identify advances in assistive technology devices for seniors and aging-in-place technology and to determine the level of evidence for research on remote patient monitoring, smart homes, telecare, and artificially intelligent monitoring systems.MethodsA literature review was conducted using Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Plus, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore, ProQuest Central, Scopus, and Science Direct. Publications related to older people’s care, independent living, and novel assistive technologies were included in the study.ResultsA total of 91 publications met the inclusion criteria. In total, four themes emerged from the data: technology acceptance and readiness, novel patient monitoring and smart home technologies, intelligent algorithm and software engineering, and robotics technologies. The results revealed that most studies had poor reference standards without an explicit critical appraisal.ConclusionsThe use of ubiquitous in-home monitoring and smart technologies for aged people’s care will increase their independence and the health care services available to them as well as improve frail elderly people’s health care outcomes. This review identified four different themes that require different conceptual approaches to solution development. Although the engineering teams were focused on prototype and algorithm development, the medical science teams were concentrated on outcome research. We also identified the need to develop custom technology solutions for different aging societies. The convergence of medicine and informatics could lead to the development of new interdisciplinary research models and new assistive products for the care of older adults.
Highlights
Life expectancy has increased worldwide, and countries have been experiencing the same challenges regardless of the geographical location
The engineering teams were focused on prototype and algorithm development, the medical science teams were concentrated on outcome research
Our review determined that the studies either focused on technology acceptance or examined the development of new patient monitoring and smart home technologies, real-time transmission of raw data, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms
Summary
Life expectancy has increased worldwide, and countries have been experiencing the same challenges regardless of the geographical location. Technology usage is limited among seniors aged ≥75 years, several prototype and experimental systems were developed, and various studies were conducted to support the elderly by clinicians, computer scientists, data scientists, and engineers; few studies explored the current trends in senior care technology research [5]. The aim of this study was to explore the current research trends and level of evidence for remote patient monitoring, smart home, and artificially intelligent monitoring systems. The increase in life expectancy and recent advancements in technology and medical science have changed the way we deliver health services to the aging societies. Evidence suggests that home telemonitoring can significantly decrease the number of readmissions, and continuous monitoring of older adults’ daily activities and health-related issues might prevent medical emergencies
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