Online Psychosocial Assessment Instruments Technology Transfer

描述(由申请人提供)：随着老年人的年龄增长，他们需要越来越多的适应性援助和照顾，来自他们的照顾者-通常是忙碌的或偏远的人。随着婴儿潮一代准备退休，需要支持的绝对人数将远远超过国家提供专业照顾者的能力。此外，国家将无法负担那些能够在适当的老年技术支持下独立生活的老年人的住宿照顾费用。这个项目将探索利用综合信息和测量技术的可行性，以帮助延长老年人在其住宿环境中的独立期，以提高生活质量和降低总护理成本。特别是，该项目将研究(半)自动化的居家收集、分析和适当分发心理社会数据如何能够使老年人在其社会支持网络成员的支持下保持这种独立性。手动收集患者的心理社会数据(例如，简明疼痛清单(BPI)的纸质版本[Cleeland，1991])容易出错，而且往往由于患者依从性差而不完整。通过在Kinnexxus系统上增加一系列日常传感器(如摄像机和麦克风)和在线评估仪器，人们也许能够自动获取大部分信息。技术转让的这一阶段侧重于结合使用传感器和在线评估仪器测量疼痛属性的可行性。这项研究的具体目标是评估新的疼痛评估技术，与纸质BPI的传统使用相比较，以论证Kinnexxus平台灵活而强大的扩展的可行性，支持老年人的日常疼痛监测。该项目将审查有关新技术的有效性和可用性的问题。 与公共健康相关：通过提供一个带有心理社会传感器和评估仪器的适应性老年人服务亭，通过互联网连接到一个可定制的社交网络，将老年人与家人、临床医生和其他照顾者联系起来，从而加强就地老龄化，提高生活质量，并降低成本。这个服务亭的一个重要角色是在适当的时间和地点向长者提供有用的提醒，以便收集心理社会评估信息(例如疼痛评估)，并以适合长者支持网络中各个成员所扮演的角色的方式分发和分析这些信息。就地老龄化已成为公共卫生的一个极其重要的考虑因素，特别是由于婴儿潮一代即将退休和老龄化，他们将需要适当的老年技术来支持他们在年老时的独立性，同时减少用于老年人护理的公共支出。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As elders age, they need increasing amounts of adaptive assistance and care from their caregivers- people who are often busy or remote. With the baby boomer generation preparing to retire, the sheer number of people who will need support will far outstrip the nation's ability to provide professional caregivers. Furthermore, the nation will not be able to afford residential care costs for those elders who could live independently with appropriate gerontechnological support. This project will explore the feasibility of utilizing integrated information and measurement technology to help extend the period of an elder's independence in their residential setting, with improved quality of life and reduced total cost of care. In particular, the project will examine how the (semi-)automated in-home collection, analysis, and appropriate distribution of psychosocial data might enable elders to maintain this independence, with support from members of their social support network. Manual collection of patient psychosocial data (e.g., paper versions of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) [Cleeland, 1991]) is error-prone and often incomplete due to poor patient compliance. By augmenting the Kinnexxus system with a selection of the everyday sensors (e.g., cameras and microphones) and online assessment instruments, one might be able to automate much of the information acquisition. This phase of the technology transfer focuses on the feasibility of measuring pain attributes with a combination of sensors and online assessment instruments. The study's specific objectives are to evaluate novel pain assessment technology, compared with conventional use of the paper-based BPI, to demonstrate the feasibility of a flexible and robust extension to the Kinnexxus platform, supporting elders' everyday monitoring of pain. The project will examine issues regarding effectiveness and usability of the novel technology. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Aging-in-place can be enhanced, quality of life extended, and costs reduced by providing an adaptable elder kiosk with attached psychosocial sensors and assessment instruments for an elder to use in his/her residence, connecting by Internet to a customizable social network that links the elder with family members, clinicians and other caregivers, wherever they are located. An important role played by this kiosk is to provide useful reminders to the elder at the appropriate time and place in order to collect psychosocial assessment information (e.g. pain assessment), and to distribute and analyze such information in a way that is appropriate to the roles played by the various members of the elder's support network. Aging-in-place has become an extremely important consideration for public health, due especially to the pending retirement and aging of the baby boomer generation, who will need appropriate gerontechnology to support their independence as they age, while reducing public expenditures for elder care.