Abstract
Introduction:
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the most common fall-related injury among adults 65 and older, despite the high incidence there is a paucity of research to guide management of older adult TBI . Simple passive remote home monitoring systems can be used to unobtrusively track markers of health and function in older adults and enhance clinical decision making in community-based care models, such as ‘hospital at home’. There are few studies to-date examining healthcare practitioners (HCPs) views on this technology. We aimed to explore HCPs insights on how to best develop the technology and examined barriers and facilitators to the adoption of passive remote monitoring in the community to track health and function in older adults following TBI.
Method:
This was a multi-center mixed methodology qualitative study. HCPs opinions were explored during and online focus group and individual interviews. Purposive sampling was used to provide balanced representation of healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses and therapists) from both community and acute multidisciplinary teams. Data were analysed using the framework approach.
Results:
The perspectives of 6 HCPs were analysed. Potential barriers to adoption were HCPs lack of familiarity with technology, skepticism over the reliability of technology, the potential for nefarious use of patient’s data and concerns over how data will be managed and interpreted for clinical use. Facilitators were the promotion of safety and independence at home, reduced workload for HCPS, the potential to target appropriate healthcare interventions and flag issues early in cognitively impaired older adults.
Conclusion(s):
HCPs felt that passive remote monitoring holds potential to improve care for older adults following TBI. However, its implementation demands thoughtful planning and clear guidelines for its use and interpretation of data. Iterative development of these systems, incorporating HCPs insights will be key to successful and sustained use in research and clinical practice.