Older people represent a growing proportion of attendees in Emergency Departments across Europe. Traditionally Emergency Departments have not focused on care for older people, especially those with frailty. Similarly, geriatric services have not traditionally focused upon the care of older people in Emergency Departments. This work seeks to bring together the two disciplines of Geriatric and Emergency Medicine through a defined and validated curriculum on Geriatric Emergency Medicine. Domains and items for inclusion in the curriculum were derived through a combination of literature reviewing and a nominal group workshop. The domains and items underwent validation using a Delphi technique involving the European Societies of Geriatric and Emergency Medicine. In the development stage, 100 individual learning outcomes were identified, reflecting 16 domains; following the stage 2 validation process, 98 items remained. All items were approved by the relevant EU societies. In the final validation step, the curriculum was formally approved by the UEMS sections for Geriatric Medicine and Emergency Medicine (responsible for curriculae in the respective disciplines).

Om te voorzien in kwaliteitsvolle en kosteneffectieve ouderenzorg wordt er in toenemende mate gebruik gemaakt van technologieën voor contactloze monitoring. Het doel van dit systematisch literatuuronderzoek is het exploreren van de attitudes en percepties van ouderen ten aanzien van contactloze monitoringsystemen.

INTRODUCTION:Technologies for contactless monitoring are increasingly used in order to contribute to qualitative and cost-effective care for older persons. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to explore the attitudes and perceptions of older persons towards the use of systems for contactless monitoring. METHODOLOGY:Relevant studies were identified through an extensive search strategy in Medline, Embase and Cinahl for studies published between January 1990 and August 19 2012; using a reference list offered by a group of experts in this field of research and through the exploration of the reference lists of all relevant studies. RESULTS:Nine studies with a qualitative study design and one study with a combined study design were included in this literature review. Various aspects of the attitudes, perceptions and needs of older persons as potential or actual end-users of contactless monitoring are discussed in five themes. This refers to the perceptions of older persons on the potential usefulness of contactless monitoring, the communication of information obtained through monitoring, several concerns when contactless monitoring is used and the participation and involvement of the person who is monitored. All these facets can influence the willingness of older people to accept these monitoring systems. CONCLUSIONS:This review can offer technology developers and care providers useful information to promote acceptance and successful integration of systems for contactless monitoring into daily practice by ensuring that they meet the needs, concerns and wishes of older persons as their end-users. Further exploration of the attitudes and perceptions of older people towards contactless monitoring through qualitative and quantitative research with a good methodological quality is required.