Designing and evaluating a XXXX -centred health management system for seniors.

@entity1 @entity37007 @entity102
INTRODUCTION: Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing @entity102 rather than preventing them. METHODS: We address shortcomings of existing consumer-level health informatics applications in supporting senior health consumers, and provide designers of such systems with a design framework. We assess the feasibility of @entity1 -centred health management systems (HMSs) that are designed based on the proposed framework. In contrast to traditional telehealth, HMSs are @entity1 centred and aim at enabling health consumers to take control of their own health by providing functionality for health self-management. Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in evaluating a @entity37007 . RESULTS: Senior healthcare consumers viewed our @entity37007 prototype positively, and experienced a positive change in their attitude towards their health. We identified requirements and challenges for HMSs. In particular, @entity1 indicated that social networking features must have a clear purpose beyond simple broadcasting of emotions and opinions. DISCUSSION: Our study indicates that seniors are able and motivated to leverage a web-based @entity1 -centred @entity37007 , provided that there are suitable health support applications tailored to their needs. This could be achieved by making it attractive for third party application developers to contribute @entity37007 content.
