Emerging Models of Care Using IT in Long-Term/Post-Acute Care: A Comparative Analysis of Human and AI-Driven Qualitative Insights

Abstract

By 2050, the proportion of the world’s population that is over 60 will nearly double from 12% to 22%, representing nearly 2 billion older people worldwide. In response, the United Nations declared 2021–2030 to be the Decade of Healthy Aging, aiming to improve the lives of older people, their families, and the communities in which they live. Thus, Long-Term Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) systems that provide care for older adults are a significant global area of interest. In this paper, we use the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of LTPAC: “national systems that ensure integrated long-term care that is appropriate, affordable, accessible and upholds the rights of older people and carers alike.” In this definition, LTPAC providers include home care and hospice, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes. LTPAC systems are essential because 70% of older adults will require long term care (e.g., assistance in their activities of daily living [e.g., moving around, bathing, and feeding]) over the course of their long lives. Within LTPAC communities, older adults’ activities are supported through informal caregivers (i.e., family, friends, neighbors) and healthcare professionals to ensure that people maintain the highest quality of life, according to their preferences, with the greatest degree of independence, autonomy, participation, personal fulfillment, and dignity.

As the world’s population gets older, many challenges exist for providing safe, higher quality care for older adults at the individual, institutional and community levels. Older adults in LTPAC systems have a high degree of medical complexity that is often hampered by increasing functional decline and cognitive impairment, and often takes place in environments with low resources. One international strategy for improving quality of care in the world’s LTPAC systems is the efficient and competent use of health information technology (IT). Unfortunately, there are many gaps in our evidence base about how technology can be used to support care of older people in LTPAC systems.

This paper describes the outcomes of an International Summit on Innovation and Technology for the Care of Older People (IS-ITCOP) designed to build a research agenda that can be used to achieve a safer, higher quality, more accessible, and equitable LTPAC healthcare system. The proposed research agenda will promote the timely production of research to identify where facilitators and barriers in the practice and delivery of healthcare for older adults that are supported by technology are most concerned. Four topics were discussed during the two-day IS-ITCOP Summit, including: 1) Emerging Models of Care (EMC) using Technology, 2) Workforce of the Future, 3) Transparency & Accountability in Quality, and 4) Privacy & Safety of IT use in the care of older adults. This report provides outcomes of the thematic analysis of the IS-ITCOP discussions focusing on EMC Using Technology in the care of older adults.