Digital transformation of integrated care: Literature review and research agenda

Ambient assisted technologies have the potential to prolong the life of older adults with declining functional capacities in the community, which is of key importance in ageing societies. It also facilitates work and improves work outcomes in care systems. Currently, in European Union member states, many older adults seek acceptance to nursing homes too early. Current capacities of available nursing homes are in several member states insufficient to cater to increasing demand from the ageing population. How to prolong living in the community and postpone the reallocation to the nursing home is a major challenge in the European ageing society. According to the Web of Science, in the last 20 years, there has been growing research interest in ambient assisted living. Until now, the field of nursing and the field of social care in many member states are not integrated sufficiently, resulting in increased expenditures for nursing and social care on one hand and lack of services provided for a growing number of older adults with declining functional capabilities on the other hand. This paper aims to review the literature on the ambient assisted living and introduce the multiple decrement model for the measurement of efficiency of developed ambient assisted living technologies that are incorporated into the systems for management and control of long-term care services. Based on the proposed model, the future research agenda is outlined. Copyright (C) 2020 The Authors.