Abstract

This presentation provides a holistic perspective on technology enabled integrated care and practical recommendations for implementation and up-scaling: falls prevention and management will illustrate the challenges and opportunities to create a better and safer environment for seniors at risk. Through this example allow people from different backgrounds (from policymakers to work floor carers and patients) to understand the practical implications and benefit of technology enabled integrated care. An integrated fall prevention and management service requires comprehensive coordination of actions in the care and cure as well as the social domain. Historically, there has been little coordination across these sectors. Integrated care may be seen as a response to the fragmented delivery of health and social services. The paradigm shift in healthcare systems also applies to fall prevention and management and comprises a transition: 1) from mainly a monodisciplinary to a multi-disciplinary form of care provision, 2) from a curative approach to preventive medicine and public health, 3) from institutional care to community care, and 4) from professional care to informal care. In the search for effective strategies to prevent and manage fall prevention and management, different models and programs have been proposed. In spite of their differences, all these models or programs aimed at a less fragmented, more integrated provision of patient-centred care. The Integrated Care Model is currently central to European and United States’ healthcare policy, and includes important elements of self-management, social support organisations, informal carers and the community. While technology is mentioned as an important facilitator of integrated care, further elaborations on the required functionalities remain absent, as well as the implications of future information and communication technology (ICT) developments. In this presentation, the role of ICT and future developments is discussed from the perspective of integrated falls prevention and management.