Transformational government and improving services for older adults through the DIADEM assistive technology

Abstract

PurposeTransformational government has been on the European agenda for several years. However, progress towards transforming public services for older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments has been very limited. While socioeconomic factors associated with the older adult community which can hinder their usage of governments' online services, partly explain such slow progress, the paper argues that inability of current web‐based technologies and services to adequately cater for specific cognitive impairments of older adults plays a major part in this. Highlighting such limitations, the purpose of this paper is to present the results from a research project currently being undertaken in the UK, Norway and Italy, to demonstrate how assistive web‐based technologies can be developed to assist the transformation of governments' services for older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments.Design/methodology/approachThe research approach includes three phases. The aim of Phase 1 is to develop a comprehensive list of requirements for the development of the first version of the delivering inclusive access to disabled and elderly members (DIADEM) application. In Phase 2, a usability evaluation is carried out from the perspective of the older adult target user group. These two phases include the literature revive, the focus group interviews and the user trials. Currently, DIADEM project activities are about to go into Phase 3.FindingsThe key findings of the study indicate that the users of the DIADEM assisted online form filling seemed report comparatively high levels of satisfaction. Furthermore, the innovative use of experts systems has brought significant benefits to the older adults with cognitive decline as the DIADEM technology appears to be sensitive to the users who present high level of cognitive decline, and provides increased levels of assistance accordingly. The paper shows how such benefits can transform the governments' services to older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments when the DIADEM technology is commercialised and diffused.Research limitations/implicationsThe DIADEM enabled transformations is not simply about technology. It is an organisational change too. As a result further research needs to be carried out on the challenges around change management, and the level of commitment to change which will be required to achieve the DIADEM enabled transformation in governments.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on transforming governments' online services for older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments. This research area has been neglected for several years by both researchers and practitioners.