Digitisation, health literacy and health empowerment of older people

This paper presents the concept of digital health, also known as e-healthcare, and discusses its current state of the art, enabling factors, and barriers. The focus is on the level of e-health literacy among the elderly population, the factors that influence it, the relevance of innovative digital health projects, the usability of digital tools, organizational models, and implications for the national health system. The study employed a research methodology consisting of two phases. A review of journal articles was conducted, followed by a longitudinal analysis of a case study of a project (TS4.0) launched by the Trentino Region. The study emphasises the need for training programmes on key IT and health technologies for underserved groups to improve the adoption of eHealth technologies by patients. Specific actions to achieve this goal are proposed, with emphasis on the crucial role of public institutions. For hospitals to fully embrace technology and become digital, healthcare facilities must undergo a business and managerial transformation that involves the use of technology. This case study highlights the importance of supporting healthcare start-ups to comprehensively improve healthcare. Although this study is limited to a single case, the results may be useful for further research in identifying other factors that enable or hinder the adoption of digitalisation in the healthcare sector.