Early outcomes of a combined Telemedicine and Telemonitoring project for aging individuals with disabilities

Background: As the country's aging population increases at a fast rate, so are several sub-populations within this category. One such sub population is the aging population with developmental disabilities and other forms of disabilities. The life-expectancy of this population has improved considerably due to better medical treatments, better living conditions and better health care services. However, they still face not only the challenges of disabilities, but also the complications related to aging. This adds tremendous burden for care-takers and providers to provide medical and social services to this population along with the general aging population. In addition, the high cost of such services for our healthcare system, calls for cost-effective solutions. Advances in telemedicine and telemonitoring systems provide some solutions to reduce the cost; ease the burden on care givers and also improve the health outcomes for these individuals. The current project, provided through the Center for Disability Services in NY, aims to use both these technologies to deliver much needed services to this population.

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the early outcomes of this model of delivering health care services for this population subset. Specifically, we will be evaluating the time and cost savings for care providers, health outcomes for patients and also the satisfaction and experience of the caregivers with the technology.

Method: Data is being collected from care givers, patients and care providers. The study uses pre and post surveys to measure the difference in cost and quality outcomes. We draw from usability studies to measure caregivers experience with the technology.

Results & Conclusions: The study findings are expected to hold important implications for health care providers embarking on using these new technologies to provide care to such vulnerable populations.