How Do Health Care Providers Perceive Technologies for Monitoring Older Adults?

Monitoring and assistive technologies for the older adults, by sensing and recording activities and status, provide an objective record of a patient's functioning within natural environments. Yet the data derived from these technologies do not directly address the clinical aims of health care providers. We conducted focus groups with health care providers who work with older adults to elicit their perspectives on monitoring technologies. Identified themes centered around the benefits and risks of technologies, patient needs, the clinical utility of information, and specific monitoring domains that might improve the health care of older adults. Providers highlighted the primary importance of involving families and caregivers, and of sustaining human interactions. They explored the difficulties with how to use information for clinical ends, and challenged the notion that more objective information would automatically improve their heath care. Designers, developers, and researchers might improve the utility and uptake of health-related technologies for older adults and their families by eliciting the viewpoints of clinical providers.