Handbook Of Digital Homecare

This second volume of the “Handbook of Digital Homecare” reviews the attempts to develop new ICT services for digital homecare, i.e. services to deliver, maintain and improve care in the home environment using the latest ICT technology and devices. The book highlights the successful projects as well as failures of Digital homecare and provides several “lessons learned” to the wide audience of Health and ICT professionals.

Digital Homecare is a collection of services to deliver, maintain and improve care in the home environment using the latest ICT technology and devices. It is important to recognize the wide range of issues that are covered by digital homecare. This book shows a good selection of related issues, be it experience, technologies, managerial issues or standardization. A very diverse "audience"; elderly, people with chronic conditions, disabled, to name the most important groups, benefits from digital homecare, within the comfort and protection of their own homes.

An ageing population is burdening social and healthcare services around the world, and this problem is likely to get worse as the percentage of older people continues to rise. Many governments are already responding to this challenge, and a key element in their strategies is the development and deployment of computer-based telecare and telehealth technologies to support care at home in a cost-effective manner. Human involvement in care continues to be central, but home care technologies can offer reassurance, and support routine aspects, to the benefit of all concerned. This book provides an up-to-date overview of key advances in the relevant technology, with an in-depth examination of the latest research in various home care technologies by experts in the field. The book mainly discusses the results of the Mobilising Advanced Technologies for Care at Home (MATCH) project, co-ordinated by the University of Stirling in Scotland, but work on related projects is also included. The book will be of interest to all researchers and practitioners in the fields of telecare and telehealth, policymakers in these areas, and providers of social and healthcare with an interest in technology.

In addition to creating the opportunity for collaboration, transformation, and innovation in the healthcare industry, technology plays an essential role in the development of human well-being and psychological growth. Handbook of Research on ICTs for Human-Centered Healthcare and Social Services is a comprehensive collection of relevant research on technology and its developments of ICTs in healthcare and social services. This book focuses on the emerging trends in the social and healthcare sectors such as social networks, security of ICTs, and advisory services, beneficial to researchers, scholars, students, and practitioners to further their interest in technological advancements.

Pervasive healthcare is an emerging research discipline, focusing on the development and application of pervasive and ubiquitous computing technology for healthcare and wellness. Pervasive healthcare seeks to respond to a variety of pressures on healthcare systems, including the increased incidence of life-style related and chronic diseases, emerging consumerism in healthcare, need for empowering patients and relatives for self-care and management of their health, and need to provide seamless access for healthcare services, independent of time and place. Pervasive healthcare may be defined from two perspectives. First, it is the development and application of pervasive computing (or ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence) technologies for healthcare, health and wellness management. Second, it seeks to make healthcare available to anyone, anytime, and anywhere by removing locational, time and other restraints while increasing both the coverage and quality of healthcare. This book proposes to define the emerging area of pervasive health and introduce key management principles, most especially knowledge management, its tools, techniques and technologies. In addition, the book takes a socio-technical, patient-centric approach which serves to emphasize the importance of a key triumvirate in healthcare management namely, the focus on people, process and technology. Last but not least the book discusses in detail a specific example of pervasive health, namely the potential use of a wireless technology solution in the monitoring of diabetic patients.

Both the demographics and lack of resources in the health and well-being industry are increasingly forcing us to find alternative solutions for individualized health and social care. In an effort to address this issue, smart technologies present enormous potential in solving this challenge. This book strives to enhance communication and collaboration between technology and health and social care sectors. The reader will receive an extensive overview of the possibilities of various technologies in care sectors (including ICT, electronics, automation, and sensor technology) written by experts from various countries. It will prove extremely useful for engineers developing well-being related systems, software, or other devices that can be used by professionals working with people with specialist needs, well-being and health service providers, educators teaching related courses, and upper level undergraduate students and graduate student studying related topics. The technology focus of the book is widespread and addresses elderly care and hospitals, in addition to solutions for various user groups, devices, and technologies. Beyond serving as a resource for nurses and people working in care sector, the book is also meant to give guidelines for engineers developing person-centered systems by exploring the integration of these technologies into service systems.

Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition. Handbook of Home Health Care, Fifth Edition has been completely revised and updated to provide up-to-date, specific, authoritative guidance for the successful administration and management of home health care agencies. An excellent, comprehensive text, this Handbook addresses detailed legal and legislative issues, case management processes, and state-of-the-art technology.

Drawing upon extensive research from inside live projects, the book examines the use of digital technologies to provide more joined-up public services, and combines cross-disciplinary insights to provide a new social informatics perspective on digital government.