In order for older adults to use mHealth, the Center for Technology and Aging (CTA) works with healthcare providers, aging service organizations, payers, foundations, and technology companies to accelerate the deployment of proven technologies. CTA works closely with the Administration on Aging, CMS, ONC, state governments, the SCAN Foundation, California HealthCare Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
According to David Lindeman PhD, Director for the Center for Technology and Aging (CTA), the use of mobile health solutions is providing effective ways to treat the older adult population and enables them to remain at home.
Today, CTA formed partnerships with funders to help design programs to meet strategic goals centered on technology, aging, and chronic disease management. As previously announced, CTA’s mHealth Diffusion Grants Program awards went to several awardees such as CalOptima, Family Services Agency (San Francisco), Front Porch Center for Technology Innovation and Wellbeing, HealthInsight a collaborative effort with the Utah Beacon Community, and Sharp HealthCare Foundation.
Grantees accomplishments:
- CalOptima initiated their Heart Health Pilot Program with five one year grants using RPM, MedOP devices, and cell phones in home settings in Orange County California. The goal was to prevent or delay transitioning Medicare patients with congestive heart failure to higher levels of care
- Family Services Agency of San Francisco, a regional social service agency is using a tablet-based touch screen assessment tool, a care planning tool, and a cloud-based EHR to help frail and isolated low-income seniors with behavioral health or substance abuse issues. The technology called CIRCE-ADEPT enables clinicians to quickly screen and assess clients and use results to help treatment planning
- The Front Porch Center for Technology Innovation and Wellbeing program uses mobile technology to help seniors in a Continuing Care Retirement Center in Los Angeles. The Center is addressing medication adherence among active independent older adults by using cell phone texting reminders via a two way SMS-based medication reminder service.
- The Utah Beacon Community’s “IC3 Diabetes Mobile Health Pilot” uses mobile health tools such as Voxiva’s Care4Life technology which is a personalized interactive mobile health services designed to help patients with diabetes. Two way interactive text messaging assists 310 patients enrolled in the Care4Life text messaging study across 14 provider sites. Care4Life increases blood glucose monitoring by sending glucose reminders, provides immediate feedback, tracks all glucose recordings on a web portal, sends education messages, and provides tips. Several patients have presented blood glucose reading in normal ranges after years of chronic diabetes complications.
- The Sharp HealthCare Foundation has a project helping COPD patients to better manage chronic care effectively using mHealth. The technology is helping the underserved Medicare Fee-for-Service patients at Sharp Grossmont Hospital with primary or secondary diagnosis of COPD. The “Cardocom Commander Flex” a web-enabled data portal and a personal health coach enables Sharp to care for at least 120-180 patients with COPD by monitoring daily oxygen saturation along with symptoms. Information is automatically sent over a cellular network to a data portal for analysis by the chronic care RN project coordinator.
In general, the CTA mHealth Demonstration grants are showing that technology is ten percent of the issue. Ninety percent of technology deployment and adoption requires staff engagement and buy-in, developing the work flow process, developing effective technology deployment strategy, providing for organizational leadership, and emphasizing change management in the organization.
For more information, go to www.techandaging.org.
