Technology Supports for Home Health Care Providers

Ablelink Technologies, Inc., Colorado Springs CO

Investigators

Abstract

Specialized computer-based health care support technology has great potential for addressing the needs of family home health care providers in providing care to seniors. The proposed system will be designed to provide simplified multi-media instructions and self-initiated reminders to assist family caregivers with providing health care services to seniors in the home. It is hypothesized that provider quality of life, as measured by the stress and fatigue of family member caregivers, can be improved through the availability of personalized care instructions including text, audio, picture, and video instructions via a simplified portable computer support system. Phase I is designed to 1) determine the functional, interface and technical requirements of the system, 2) design and develop a fully functioning prototype system, and 3) pilot testing of the system with family caregivers. These activities are intended to set the stage for Phase II research, where Phase I findings will be implemented in a software redevelopment effort to produce a Phase II prototype suitable for extended field testing by caregivers providing health care services to seniors in the community in a longitudinal study.