The Influence of Technology on Long-Term Care Systems

New technologies may have a beneficial impact on long-term care (LTC) systems by improving the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of LTC provision, and even by decreasing the need for LTC in the first place. Given the great uncertainty about the diffusion and implementation of available technology, there is little point in trying to make quantitative forecasts about the impact of technology. A more useful approach is to study the mechanisms through which technology can have an impact on LTC. This is the subject of Work Package 4 of the ANCIEN project. Both generally and via a number of case studies, it develops a framework to analyse the impact of technology on LTC. The functioning of this framework is illustrated by considering a number of specific long-term conditions, such as dementia, obesity and diabetes.