Not only are baby boomers like me screeching toward senior citizenhood, Americans in general are living longer — a good thing, of course, though the downside is that the longer we live, the more likely we’ll develop multiple chronic conditions — all of which adds up to a big challenge for hospitals and other health care providers.
Happily, new technologies are emerging with satisfying regularity that will allow more of us to avoid unnecessary hospitalization. But sorting out all those technologies and understanding how to implement them can be daunting for providers.
Recently, the Center for Technology and Aging announced a new set of tools to help health care organizations design and implement technology-enabled programs to improve transitions in care and medication use — two important goals in moving health care forward.
The tools are available online at no cost, and are part of the recently launched ADOPT Toolkit. ADOPT is the acronym for Accelerate the Diffusion of Proven Technologies.
“Connected health technologies that improve management of transitional care and medication optimization dramatically improve the health and well-being of persons with chronic disease or functional impairments, as well as helping the nation avoid billions of dollars in costly hospital admissions and other unnecessary health care expenses,” says David Lindeman, director of the center.
The Adopt Toolkit includes free, practical resources that guide hospitals and others through the technology adoption phases, which include planning, development, implementation and evaluation. The resources are organized into eight workstreams: program planning, technology management, patient management, clinical management, financial management, administration, marketing, and evaluation and performance improvement.
Users simply select a toolkit, then a specific tool to find practical guides, checklists, lessons learned and other resources.
