E-Health Solutions for Chronic Disease Management - Lab Report Example

E-health Solutions for Chronic Disease Management in Residential Aged Homes Student’s Name Class Institution City and State Date Abstract Health care is changing. The technological advances of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have generated the capability to transform and improve the management and delivery of health care services through e-health options. E-health is one of the most imperative revolutions in healthcare and its value in improving the quality of care in residential aged care homes is considerable. There are numerous e-health options for the prevention as well as treatment of clients’ terminal disease in residential aged care home, and the options transform and improve the management and delivery of health care services. In Australia, the use of these options is limited. There is a growing population of elderly with chronic problems and means that the country will face huge challenges in the near future in prevention and management of chronic diseases among the elderly. This study suggests that the government run four pilot programmes in different regions with the following main outputs to identify hindrances of effective e-health care among the elderly. Introduction E-health options describe the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in a wide array of tasks that influence the health of clients with chronic disease in the residential aged care homes. E-health will boost health and deliver value in teleHealth, disease management, decision support, and patient safety. In Australia, E-health can be associated with numerous benefits such as increased access to health-related information and health care services, improved capacity to make a diagnosis and track diseases, well-timed public health information, as well as extended access to ongoing training for health workers and medical education (Wave 2009). This report seeks to identify e-health options for the prevention as well as management of clients’ chronic disease in residential aged care home and offer recommendations to advice the government on the strategy to implement the solution. The number of aged people with chronic problems is on the rise and it will become a challenge for health care. This is a great test for the public health systems, and the well-being of the citizens. Health care solutions offered by ICT offer solutions to this problem. The services and tools, which contribute to e-health offer better and more efficient health care services for these citizens. The possibilities of e-health and mobile technology can solve these challenges by improving the clients’ lifestyle, reducing hospitalization duration, and weight loss. In Australia, the uptake and diffusion of ICT remains a considerable challenge for health managers, government, systems developers, and healthcare practitioners. The stakes involved in health ICT are very high (Westbrook & Braithwaite 2010) and there are considerable clinical, significant and organizational risks (Karsh et al. 2010). Nonetheless, E-health solutions enable personal health systems, which generate significant advantages for the clients, and they bring about cost effectiveness in the health care. The government needs to assist the residential homes to install advanced information systems, which enable e-health solutions. Methods The documents and studies reviewed in this study cover the issue of health informatics; they cover the compilation, analysis, as well as movement of health data and information that support health care, direct, and indirect delivery of health care or health information to recipients. The documents encompass information related to the systems, services that go beyond simple internet based applications and include tools for health professionals and authorities and personalized health systems for citizens and patients. The search methods for the identification of these studies and documents for review entail using keywords. The keywords used in conducting search for review document and studies are; e-health, chronic disease, internet, telecommunications, health care informatics, access to health care and health care accessibility, management of chronic diseases, residential aged care homes. The databases searched in this study contain studies and documents related to e-health. Keywords are used in identifying the databases and searching documents related to e-health solutions among the elderly in residential care homes. The studies and documents used in review focus on e-health, chronic disease, internet, telecommunications, health care informatics, access to health care and health care accessibility, management of chronic diseases, residential aged care homes. This was the inclusion criteria. The exclusion criteria were studies and documents not related to e-health. Results After reviewing 15 documents and studies related to e-health, it was evident that it has the extraordinary potential for changing and improving the management of clients in the homes and the diseases from which they suffer. In addition, e-health opens up a wide range of new ways in disease preventions and ways that clients can reduce their risk of illness and co-manage their health care together with their team of health care professional. The management and prevention of chronic disease in residential aged care homes is a critical focus for improvement and a lynchpin for an effective health care transformation. Home care presents numerous prospects for management of chronic diseases. Constant monitoring at residential aged care homes can facilitate improvement of quality of care and life for the aged. The government can afford numerous e-health solutions to the clients, for instance the EPI-MEDICS and WD solutions. It can also establish a modular home care system customized for clients with diverse chronic diseases. E-health has a potential of improving health services in residential aged care home through transforming the way the homes manage information about their clients (Eysenbach 2000). All things that happen in health care result in information and all this information is stored. E-health has a real potential for making all of the information collected about the clients recoverable, identifiable, and useful to all persons who require it, whenever they require it and wherever they are (Anderson et al. 2006). It enables easy and efficient flow of information and nurse, physicians, and other health care providers benefit greatly from this. The e-health system can offer the clients focused services for measurement, communication as well as interactive meetings for measurement, communication with education, providers, as well as interactive meetings with doctor and nurses to convey information or to seek counsel (Hailey et al. 2004). The system can support examination of clients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart diseases. Such a plan can generate good results regarding loss of weight and reduced admission of heart failure clients in hospitals. “The Enhanced Personal, Intelligent, and Mobile System for Early Detection and Interpretation of Cardiological Syndromes (EPI-MEDICS)” is also a good e-health option for management of client’s chronic disease in residential aged care homes. The EPI-MEDICS is a convenient, able, and individual self-care system meant for supporting the clients’ personal management of heartbeat status by offering personal ECG monitor for use when needed (Quinn et al. 2009). This system can facilitate the clients in importing recoded information without difficulty for health care professionals use. According to Mattila et al. (2010), another useful e-health option is the Wellness diary (WD), which is a mobile application, for supporting clients’ acts on management of well being. Mobile technology is appropriate for self-management and wellness as clients normally have it every time and it facilitates continuous update and direct use regardless of the time or location. This e-health solution also offers pointer to users regarding their behaviour and actions. Mattila et al (2010) argue that Wellness Diary functions very well when it helps clients to seek experts support. The lasting use of this solution and its advantages are connected to external support and patients motivations. In addition, there are remarkable aspects, which engage the clients, sustain their motivations, help recovery, and offer additional feedback. The EPI-MEDICS and the WD solutions show that there are many possibilities offered by e-health in preventing and managing chronic ailments. Constant supervision of a client health using information systems can advance value of care and life for the elderly. The rapid development of technology as well as the growth of internet usage has enabled creation of all-encompassing health services (Anderson et al. 2006). The goal of these all-encompassing services is to boost the lives of the elderly through intelligent and proactive computing environment. The services support or monitor the clients daily life, for example using sensors and devices citizens’ actions such as physical activities, sleep and energy usage, which can be monitored repeatedly and this enable possible detection of emergency situations such as blood glucose levels, heart rate and falls as well as risky behaviours or situations. There are emotion and behaviour monitoring tools, which can assist more personalized care as well as early discovery of new emergencies and diseases (Matilla et al. 2008; Osmani et al. 2008; Pulli et al 2008). There are numerous mobile phones devices for tracking nutrition and physical activity. There are also wellness systems solutions for following functioning of the body and health development. There are developed devices which are for monitoring activity (Matilla et. al. 2008), wellness diaries (Matilla et al, 2010), discovery of cardiac syndromes using ECG measurement solutions (Fayn & Rubel 2010; Lee et al. 2009). There are also devices for diabetes patients for measuring blood sugar (Lee et al. 2009): Quinn et al. 2009), home monitoring systems and personal health records. This shows that there are many e-health possibilities for managing chronic diseases. The aging population with chronic diseases likes diabetes and heart disease uses numerous health care system resources. Offering this population ICT-based solution is a good way of improving life quality and health care efficiency. The e-health solutions offer innovative means of communication between the aged and the health care personnel. E-health websites are also feasible, viable, and timely intervention methods for providing the additional knowledge and support practitioners in the elderly homes may need to offer reactive, preventative, and remedial care for chronically ill patients. The Internet avails health facts as well as facilitates social networking that offers the aged novel social relations regarding their experiences and needs about wellbeing and may provide additional activities that are social and lessen their feelings of seclusion (James 2009). Discussion This study sought to identify e-health options for the prevention as well as management of clients’ chronic illnesses in residential aged care home. From the above results, it is evident that e-health offers health care solutions by providing better and more efficient health care services for the chronically ill. E-health technologies allow the patients to take more accountability for their person health and quality of life and they lead to superior cost-efficient in the health sector (Hill & Powell 2009). The use of e-health technologies would enable a mutual involvement and beneficial collaboration of client in the residential aged care homes and medical professions in managing and treating chronic diseases. In general, e-health would come in handy in ensuring top-quality health care of the clients. The government needs to invest more on e-health because it is central in ensuring the future of health care provision in prevention and management of chronic disease among the elderly. In Australia, the basic e-health technology is available on the market; however, the absorption and acceptance of e-health in health care caries considerable among the elderly and medical professionals. A wider use of e-health is a requirement for the development, usage, as well as further production of innovative ICT in healthcare. The government ought to strengthen the knowledge, social capacity, as well as acceptance to use e-health technologies among the patients. The government needs to persuade clients with chronic disease and the medical professionals to embrace e-health and to have the knowledge and capacity to use e-health technologies in preventing and treating diseases. This would persuade clients with chronic diseases as well as the medical professions to more readily accept e-health and have the knowledge and ability to use e-health technologies in management and prevention of chronic diseases. Upgrading of the knowledge of healthcare professionals and the provision of important skills in e-health is important in the introduction of e-health (Edirippulige 2005, p.266). The government also needs to increase awareness on e-health among the elderly and medical professionals. There are numerous obstacles to enhancing the knowledge and skills of e-health technologies among nurses in Australia. These obstacles are lack of exposure to technology, lack of awareness in e-health and its importance as well as lack of relevant professional development programmes (Edirippulige 2005, p.266). A number of clients with chronic disease and medical professionals need to be trained and educated on usage of e-health technologies in the management and prevention of chronic diseases through an education pilot programme in some of the regions in the country. The pilot programs will enable the government to assess whether lack of effectiveness arises from lack of awareness. Citizens with chronic diseases need to apply self-monitoring technologies for treatment processes and secondary prevention together with the medical personnel. This can be enabled by a pilot programme where the clients are educated on how to use e-health technologies to assess whether lack of knowledge leads to poor management and prevention of chronic diseases. In addition, the clients can test a web-based eLearning tool, which would provide lifelong learning materials about management and prevention of chronic diseases. This would promote increased patient responsibility for their personal health. The pilot programmes should focus on one of the chronic diseases such as diabetes, which it can also apply to other chronic diseases. Pilot e-health projects can come in handy in identifying hindrance to effective e-health solutions and the government can eliminate the deficiencies so that e-health can improve the elderly people lives. The government also needs to compare and transfer regional strategies on improving the social capacity of medical professionals and citizens to use e-health technologies and services for better management and treatment in the framework of the elderly. Different regions and countries use different e-health technologies in prevention and management of chronic disease among the elderly (Hailey et al. 2004). The government can borrow the e-health services and technologies to ensure that there is effective prevention and management of chronic diseases in the country. A transnational assessment of e-health is important in learning and sharing experiences from other regions. The government can run four pilot programmes in different regions with the following main outputs: an educational content for better usage of e-health by the elderly and medical professional, an ample self-monitoring system for chronic heart failure patients, as well as a personal health portal with different languages to enable clients to document their health data electronically. After the government has indentified the hindrances, it can identify solutions, which it can transfer to health care providers as well as the clients’ residential homes. Limitations of the Report The limitation of this review is the absolute dependence on previously published studies. The findings of this review was made based on the data acquired from the documented studies, which may not be correct hence may affect the accuracy of the results. There is no primary data to validate the findings. The appropriateness of used studies depended on the criteria of the exclusion and inclusion criteria. Conclusion There are numerous e-health options for the prevention and management of clients’ chronic disease in residential aged care home, and the options transform and improve the management and delivery of health care services. In Australia, the use of these options is limited coupled with a growing population of elderly with chronic problems, and this means that if the government does not appropriate action the public health systems will face a great challenge in the near future in management and prevention of chronic disease among the elderly in residential aged care homes. This study suggests that the government run four pilot programmes in different regions with the following main outputs to identify hindrances of effective e-health care among the elderly. In doing so, the government will identify the hindrances and come up with solutions of implementing the best e-health solutions for preventing and managing chronic diseases among the elderly. 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