Presentation
Designing Integrated Transitional Digitally Supported Care Pathways For Older Populations: A Unique Approach for A Unique Population
DescriptionThe Ontario healthcare system is under immense pressure due to ongoing human resource shortages and increasing demands for care from a growing and aging population. Adding to the pressure is an increasing number of older patients living with frailty who no longer require acute care but remain stuck in hospital with no safe place to go. For older people languishing in an acute care bed, there is an increased risk of physical and cognitive decline, which can later be exacerbated by poorly planned and supported hospital-to-home transitions. For hospitals, the inability to discharge older people to a safe environment leads to a lack of beds for incoming patients in need of acute level care.
This presentation will explore the process and constraints that informed the development of an integrated transitional care model founded on the use of digital technologies in the home to support older people living with frailty and their caregivers.
Healthcare Human Factors (HHF) partnered with Toronto Grace Health Centre (TGHC) bringing together older people living with frailty and their caregivers, healthcare professionals and leadership to reimagine how we might better promote aging in place and support older people and their caregivers through digital tools thereby creating pathways from hospital back to their community.
Using an human-centred evidence based co-design (EBCD) approach we explored the lived experience of older people living with frailty, their informal essential caregivers, healthcare professionals and leadership from both hospital and community, mapping the gaps and challenges that currently exist and highlighting opportunities for innovation and digital health support in the home.
We will use this presentation as an opportunity to share how we worked collaboratively with key stakeholders to integrate qualitative and quantitative data, building a comprehensive understanding of the problem space and collaboratively designing innovative pathways to change.
We will share our process which included ethnographic interviews and group workshop sessions as well as collaborative design sessions where we considered how digitally enabled solutions might fill noted gaps and ease key challenges for both older people and their essential caregivers and health care providers.
This presentation will be an opportunity to highlight how this unique approach allowed our teams to build a comprehensive understanding of not only the human lived experience and full spectrum of needs that might exist but also the systemic factors that impacted current decision making and policies and how digital health approaches might ameliorate some of these challenges. We will also spotlight how key usability, equity, and accessibility constraints relative to the unique user groups were identified and considered during the design of the pathways and solutions.
The resulting solution of this project was an Integrated Transitional Care Model (ITCM) that provides pathways to support aging in the right place with the right level of care and both digital and traditional health support at the right time. We will highlight how the ITCM spotlights whole person care for both older people living with frailty and their caregivers, placing a primacy on collaborative and localized community care to support existing connections and foster new ones. We will also discuss how warm transitions in care are facilitated through community partnerships alongside digital tools embedded in the home effectively extending hospital connections during transitional phases and engaging community partners earlier in the acute and rehab care journey. By expanding transitional care models and embedding digitally supported home monitoring we will show how noted gaps in care can be filled and how anticipatory care and planning can be supported.
It is through the optimization of digital health technologies that the ITCM eases transitions and facilitates care in the home.
This presentation will explore the process and constraints that informed the development of an integrated transitional care model founded on the use of digital technologies in the home to support older people living with frailty and their caregivers.
Healthcare Human Factors (HHF) partnered with Toronto Grace Health Centre (TGHC) bringing together older people living with frailty and their caregivers, healthcare professionals and leadership to reimagine how we might better promote aging in place and support older people and their caregivers through digital tools thereby creating pathways from hospital back to their community.
Using an human-centred evidence based co-design (EBCD) approach we explored the lived experience of older people living with frailty, their informal essential caregivers, healthcare professionals and leadership from both hospital and community, mapping the gaps and challenges that currently exist and highlighting opportunities for innovation and digital health support in the home.
We will use this presentation as an opportunity to share how we worked collaboratively with key stakeholders to integrate qualitative and quantitative data, building a comprehensive understanding of the problem space and collaboratively designing innovative pathways to change.
We will share our process which included ethnographic interviews and group workshop sessions as well as collaborative design sessions where we considered how digitally enabled solutions might fill noted gaps and ease key challenges for both older people and their essential caregivers and health care providers.
This presentation will be an opportunity to highlight how this unique approach allowed our teams to build a comprehensive understanding of not only the human lived experience and full spectrum of needs that might exist but also the systemic factors that impacted current decision making and policies and how digital health approaches might ameliorate some of these challenges. We will also spotlight how key usability, equity, and accessibility constraints relative to the unique user groups were identified and considered during the design of the pathways and solutions.
The resulting solution of this project was an Integrated Transitional Care Model (ITCM) that provides pathways to support aging in the right place with the right level of care and both digital and traditional health support at the right time. We will highlight how the ITCM spotlights whole person care for both older people living with frailty and their caregivers, placing a primacy on collaborative and localized community care to support existing connections and foster new ones. We will also discuss how warm transitions in care are facilitated through community partnerships alongside digital tools embedded in the home effectively extending hospital connections during transitional phases and engaging community partners earlier in the acute and rehab care journey. By expanding transitional care models and embedding digitally supported home monitoring we will show how noted gaps in care can be filled and how anticipatory care and planning can be supported.
It is through the optimization of digital health technologies that the ITCM eases transitions and facilitates care in the home.
Authors
President & CEO
Research & Data Analyst
Research & Data Analyst
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeTuesday, April 18:30am - 9:00am EDT
LocationPier 2/3
Digital Health (DH)