Technology comes to the aged care rescue at ITAC

Australia's ageing population has created an opportunity for deploying new technology to assist in sustainable aged care solutions. The 8th Information Technology in Aged Care (ITAC) Conference on the Gold Coast across the 24th and 25th of November will focus on issues concerning “Living the Age Revolution” with the emphasis on information technology driving change and helping establish a future proofed, quality focused aged care environment.

The conference line-up assembles local and international experts across the fields of community care, medication management, assistive technologies and off information system delivery. These critical aged care topics will be discussed from a practical perspective, highlighting the information we need to know how to better manage and design aged care service delivery.

Australian IPTV solutions provider CombiTel will be exhibiting to showcase new technology that can help facilitate streamlined and advanced services for aged care facilities and remote assistance.

There are roughly 6.1 million Australians aged over 55, with just 6.0% of this number living in retirement villages or residential aged-care facilities.

“With the onset of age-related conditions and fragility comes the growing need for assistance with everyday activities and personal care. Barriers to quality care such as isolation or lack of family or community support can be overcome with suitable platforms and IT technologies for the ageing population,"  said Combitel Managing Director Eugene Razbash.

Razbash suggests that merely deploying the latest technology is not enough.  “Useability and user experience of the technology has to be of high quality.

It also has to be intuitive and user-friendly for both staff and residents, without complication.  Complex technology solutions can cause great distress to older users. So technology platform selection is important and the age care providers need to do their own usability research for solutions that suits the resident’s needs,” he explains.

The Omniscreen IPTV solution was designed to be as inclusive as possible to all users in the aged population sector. It features clear signage capabilities and multilingual functions which allows a wide range of users to access the services.

The ITAC conference will also include and industry forum which will discuss roadmaps defining the future directions for aged care IT including the development of a joint industry-government strategy for a coordinated plan to deliver full G2B business IT capability.