The number of older people in Canada is growing. Many have depressive symptoms and other physical health problems, which contribute to frailty. This project tested a new system (TELEPROM-G) developed by a Canadian health informatics company (InputHealth).
Tablet devices and assessment tools allowed people to self-assess how they were doing from the comfort of their home. They received reminders about important activities (e.g. medications) and used the tablets to communicate with their health care-workers in “real-time” by video.
Cheryl Forchuk, PhD, RN is the Beryl and Richard Ivey Research Chair in Aging, Mental Health, Rehabilitation and Recovery and a Scientist and Assistant Director at Lawson Health Research Institute. She is also a Distinguished University Professor at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. In 1976, while at the University of Windsor, Forchuk received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing as well as her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She then obtained her Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Toronto in 1980, followed by her PhD in Nursing in 1992 from Wayne State University. Her research interests include health promotion and issues related to community integration for people diagnosed with mental illness, which includes therapeutic relationships, social support and housing/homelessness.
Puneet Seth, BSc, MD, CCFP is a practicing academic hospitalist in Ontario. He served as Chief of Department and Founder of the Hospitalist Medicine Department at the Woodstock General Hospital from 2013-2017. He also teaches and supervises residents at both Western and McMaster Universities as an Associate Clinical Professor (Adjunct). With a previous career in information technology, his extra-clinical practice includes being a digital health entrepreneur, having co-founded a social media health promotion non-profit (Polyarticular) and an educational podcast (Primary Care Podcast), and presently is Chief Medical Officer of InputHealth Systems Inc, a health technology company transforming healthcare through patient engagement and outcome measurement. He advocates for the advancement of digital health through research, public speaking and as a columnist for The Medical Post and Hospital News. He sits on various regional and provincial eHealth steering committees in Ontario.