Developing a health-enabling service system combining wearable device and personal health records for older adults

Abstract

The use of wearable devices in health promotion service is less common among older adults. The goal of this project is to validate the health-enabling innovative service for seniors combining wearable device and personal health records (“My Health Bank”) from National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA). ComCare, a health-enabling service system with an app, is built to integrate the medical records and physiological index data from three parts: data collected via wearable sensors, national personal health record storage (“My Health Bank” from NHIA), and a health management IoT cloud. The user-friendly ComCare service and app expects to provide the following two major benefits: 1. Health and Physical Assessment: With the help of wearable device and IoT cloud networks to collect activity (movement) records, daily physiological measurements (blood pressure, blood sugar, body temperature, BMI, heart rate), and medical records/prescriptions from NHIA, the family members and caregivers are fully aware of the senior’s health conditions. 2. Healthcare Service Notification: ComCare provides real-time monitoring of the elderly’s vital signs, and the corresponding care centers will be notified upon detection of abnormality. It ensures an instant healthcare and provides tracking and reporting service to promote healthy lifestyles among older adults. This research provides an empirical study to explore and analyze the effectiveness of senior health promotion using data from wearable devices and “My Health Bank”. The project will adopt a “one-group pretest-posttest” design and recruit 60 daycare seniors to participate in the next phase. Questionnaires will be completed and analyzed to generate knowledge of participants’ subjective changes towards quality of life and evaluate the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The results of this study may benefit the Ministry of Health and Welfare for consideration in policy-making process and developing a business model for the senior care industry.