Older Adults’ and Clinicians’ Perspectives on a Smart Health Platform for the Aging Population: Design and Evaluation Study
Authors: Cristiano Alessia , Musteata Stela , De Silvestri Sara , Bellandi Valerio , Ceravolo Paolo , Cesari Matteo , Azzolino Domenico , Sanna Alberto , Trojaniello Diana 
Published: November 2021

Background

Over recent years, interest in the development of smart health technologies aimed at supporting independent living for older populations has increased. The integration of innovative technologies, such as the Internet of Things, wearable technologies, artificial intelligence, and ambient-assisted living applications, represents a valuable solution for this scope. Designing such an integrated system requires addressing several aspects (eg, equipment selection, data management, analytics, costs, and users’ needs) and involving different areas of expertise (eg, medical science, service design, biomedical and computer engineering).

Objective

The objective of this study is 2-fold; we aimed to design the functionalities of a smart health platform addressing 5 chronic conditions prevalent in the older population (ie, hearing loss, cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impairments, mental health problems, and balance disorders) by considering both older adults’ and clinicians’ perspectives and to evaluate the identified smart health platform functionalities with a small group of older adults.

Methods

Overall, 24 older adults (aged >65 years) and 118 clinicians were interviewed through focus group activities and web-based questionnaires to elicit the smart health platform requirements. Considering the elicited requirements, the main functionalities of smart health platform were designed. Then, a focus group involving 6 older adults was conducted to evaluate the proposed solution in terms of usefulness, credibility, desirability, and learnability.

Results

Eight main functionalities were identified and assessed—cognitive training and hearing training (usefulness: 6/6, 100%; credibility: 6/6, 100%; desirability: 6/6, 100%; learnability: 6/6, 100%), monitoring of physiological parameters (usefulness: 6/6, 100%; credibility: 6/6, 100%; desirability: 6/6, 100%; learnability: 5/6, 83%), physical training (usefulness: 6/6, 100%; credibility: 6/6, 100%; desirability: 5/6, 83%; learnability: 2/6, 33%), psychoeducational intervention (usefulness: 6/6, 100%; credibility: 6/6, 100%; desirability: 4/6, 67%; learnability: 2/6, 33%), mood monitoring (usefulness: 4/6, 67%; credibility: 4/6, 67%; desirability: 3/6, 50%; learnability: 5/6, 50%), diet plan (usefulness: 5/6, 83%; credibility: 4/6, 67%; desirability: 1/6, 17%; learnability: 2/6, 33%), and environment monitoring and adjustment (usefulness: 1/6, 17%; credibility: 1/6, 17%; desirability: 0/6, 0%; learnability: 0/6, 0%). Most of them were highly appreciated by older participants, with the only exception being environment monitoring and adjustment. The results showed that the proposed functionalities met the needs and expectations of users (eg, improved self-management of patients’ disease and enhanced patient safety). However, some aspects need to be addressed (eg, technical and privacy issues).

Conclusions

The presented smart health platform functionalities seem to be able to meet older adults’ needs and desires to enhance their self-awareness and self-management of their medical condition, encourage healthy and independent living, and provide evidence-based support for clinicians’ decision-making. Further research with a larger and more heterogeneous pool of stakeholders in terms of demographics and clinical conditions is needed to assess system acceptability and overall user experience in free-living conditions.