Emerging ICT implementation issues in aged care

Background: Demand for aged care services continues to soar as a result of an aging population. This increasing demand requires more residential aged care facilities and healthcare workforce. One recommended solution is to keep older people in their homes longer and support their independent life through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). However, the aged care sector is still in the early stages of adopting ICT.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the key issues that affect the adoption of ICT in the aged care sector.

Methods: A systematic literature review was undertaken and involved four steps. The first two steps aimed to identify and select relevant articles. Data was then extracted from the selected articles and identified issues were analyzed and grouped into three major categories.

Results: ICT adoption issues were categorized into different perspectives, representing older people, health professionals and management. Our findings showed that all three groups were mostly concerned with issues around behavior, cost and lack of technical skills.

Discussion and conclusions: Findings reported in this study will help decision makers at aged care settings to systematically understand issues related to ICT adoption and thus proactively introduce interventions to improve use of ICT in this sector. On the basis of our findings, we suggest future research focus on the examination of aged care workflow and assessment of return on ICT investment.