Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Feb 7, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 25, 2023 - Mar 22, 2023
Date Accepted: Jul 17, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Usability of Tablets to Improve Telehealth Care Among Older Adults
ABSTRACT
Objective:
Loneliness, social isolation, and lack of technical literacy are associated with poorer health outcomes. To help improve social connection during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nova Southeastern University’s South Florida Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program partnered with a community-based organization to provide educational resources for promoting telehealth services.
Methods:
Through this pilot project, we contacted 66 vulnerable older adults who expressed interest in telehealth support through wellness calls with 44 participants moving on to complete tablet usage. All the tablets were preloaded with educational information on using the device, COVID-19 resources, and accessing telehealth services for patients, caregivers, and families.
Results:
Feedback from wellness assessments suggest a significant need for telehealth support. The main usage of the tablets includes 11% (n=5) for telehealth, 7% (n=3) to connect with friends and family, and 7% (n=3) to connect with faith communities. Discussion: Data from the field suggests that wellness calls and telehealth education were beneficial for telehealth support.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.