Industry workshop for GRaCE-AGE

A workshop event was held at Aston University in September, co-occurring with a smaller event in Belgium, attracting 30 delegates from 9 technology and IT companies to discuss their view of supporting older adults in the community, and how it aligns with training needs.

Delegates at the industry workshop

Delegates came from companies including Blackpepper, Capgemini, BeWell Innovations, and several others, as well as teaching staff from Aston University. The discussions found that enabling people to understand how to use devices and software to improve community care is a major challenge. 

Teaching people to use technology is better done through practical demonstrations and exercises, but when the devices are sold to the public, the main way of communicating how to use them is via packaged manuals. However, these manuals tend to be supplemented by online resources where tutorials and videos can be presented, often using YouTube as a platform. Also, as apps are increasingly used to deliver the software support via mobile phones or tablets, these are another way of delivering instructions about the devices.

Integration between different technologies also presents a challenge. Some companies, such as iMotions and BeWell Innovations, provide platforms for other organisations' technologies and must produce clear instructions for how to link them. This is complicated by the fact that the external organisations creating the devices will have their own instructions for how to use them and also most likely their own web services for viewing the data. BeWell handles this by providing its own app and then using a series of clear, sequential steps for linking each device to the app, and thus to BeWell's platform. It is a good example of how integration across devices is becoming essential and how difficult it is to provide clear and unambiguous instructions to allow users to do so.

The workshop concluded that the key to solving these problems is simplification in the face of increasingly sophisticated functionality. Designing interfaces with the involvement of the target population is essential. However, when users are not confident or experienced with technology, they cannot be expected to set-up and manage these technologies independently. Therefore, for healthcare, the goal should be to involve the care team in setting up devices and supporting patients in their use: both the carers and older adults must be trained to use the healthcare technology, and carers must also be trained to teach their patients to use and understand the systems.

Carer training should focus not only on understanding digital health, but also on teaching their patients to understand it.