Dr​ Amanda Adams

Research Fellow, ARIIA

In aged care settings, designing and developing a new technological solution - or repurposing an off-the-shelf one - is challenging. In the ever-evolving health and aged care digital ecosystem, providers are required to understand a new lexicon of terms and acronyms. Mastering the requirements of the Australian digital roadmap is one thing, but designing a useful and intuitive solution for an aged care service requires more than pitching the idea to the organisation to generate buy-in. 

Our latest evidence theme explores the processes, requirements and partnerships required to explore potential digital solutions to finite or wicked problems that impact effective and efficient care provision. Whilst a well-defined development process serves as the backbone for successful implementation and can ensure user acceptance, stakeholders' involvement can account for the complexity, context of use and the flow and collection of data. Taken from evidence and practical guidance, we describe the advantages of co-design with aged care staff, residents, clients and their families, offering insights into the daily challenges. Feedback from these key participants provides the opportunity to tailor robust products. Involving varied and diverse representatives in co-designing activities can ensure that products are easy to use and are integrated into workflows or routines, increasing the chance of successful implementation.

Factors influencing the successful deployment or rollout will also depend on the working structures and relationships between staff and the chosen technology vendor. Selecting a vendor just on price is risky. This choice should consider the developer's previous experience, their awareness of the requirements around interoperability, their capability to employ user-centred design thinking, and their ability to work around your staff, clients and workflows also matters. For many organisations, the need to assess the availability of human resources is equal to assigning a budget for development. In many instances, project managers are needed to facilitate and support the processes, to recruit and maintain working relationships with all the people involved. In many ways, the investment in external or 'nominated' or independent project managers can remove the burden typically felt by staff champions' who balance development and their regular duties.

For technological solutions to be accepted, adopted and sustained within care settings requires a development process and a multidisciplinary team that is user-centred in their approach. Developers and providers need to be open to feedback, good and bad, to continually shape prototypes to meet the needs of users and the business. Testing once is an absolute minimum. Testing across the development process is better, especially if people involved differ in their approach, background, capabilities, digital confidence and literacy levels. Constructive feedback allows for necessary changes before the product is rolled out at scale.

Developing within aged care can reward the organisation, older people and their families. However, there are risks and challenges to creating useful products that can be successfully implemented to influence change positively. For inexperienced aged care staff, maintaining control over the project's delivery and scope is difficult, especially when unsure of what to expect. Visit ARIIA's Developing new products evidence theme to learn more about what is needed, your role and responsibilities during development, choosing a vendor with the right team and process, what is involved in designing solutions, and which co-design and evaluation activities can be undertaken to allow everyone to be involved.

*The views and opinions expressed in Knowledge Blogs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of ARIIA, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

​​Nadège Messier​

​​Grand-App AI Oceania​ 

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on creating new content, whether it's text, images, audio or other data types, based on patterns it learns from existing data. Unlike traditional AI, which mostly classifies or predicts outcomes, Generative AI can produce entirely new outputs by analysing underlying patterns. It has become common for applications in a variety of fields, from entertainment to healthcare, where it’s being used to generate new insights, content, and solutions.

How is Generative AI being used for personalised care?

In aged care, Generative AI is transforming the delivery of person-centred care by tailoring health solutions to the individual needs of older adults. For example, generative AI systems can analyse large datasets from wearable devices or health records to create individualised care plans. These systems can also automate tasks like medication reminders and vital sign monitoring, and even trigger real-time alerts during emergencies. This allows caregivers to focus more on personal interactions, meaningful engagement and quality care.

Generative AI’s predictive capabilities are one of its most exciting breakthroughs in aged care. It can track behaviour patterns, detect changes and send early warnings for potential health risks, such as falls, cognitive decline, or the worsening of chronic conditions. This proactive approach not only improves health outcomes, but also helps to reduce healthcare costs by preventing emergencies and hospitalisations.

With its holistic approach, Generative AI addresses physical, mental and emotional well-being, helping older adults maintain autonomy and independence for longer. Beyond health monitoring, Generative AI enhances their quality of life through virtual companions and assistants. These AI tools engage in conversations, remind people about medication schedules and even detect emotional changes, providing companionship and health support, as needed. In this way, Generative AI helps to combat loneliness – one of the most common challenges in aged care – by offering therapeutic interventions and personalised content.

For those living independently, these AI-driven solutions offer peace of mind to individuals , family members and caregivers by ensuring safety and comfort.

Generative AI appears to be more than a passing trend in aged care. It plays a pivotal role in predicting health issues, personalising care plans, and preventing potential falls in older adults. AI-powered platforms and wearable devices now allow caregivers to monitor vital health, cognitive and behavioural metrics, ensuring timely intervention by caregivers, families, and medical professionals. This leads to improved care quality, reduces hospital admissions and prevents medical emergencies.

As technology advances, Generative AI is expected to play an increasingly critical role in the future of aged care, offering accessible, efficient and deeply personalised solutions for the ageing population.

*The views and opinions expressed in Knowledge Blogs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of ARIIA, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

Dr Janine Margarita Dizon

Research Fellow, ARIIA

In this blog, Dr Janine Margarita Dizon talks about the Global Evidence Summit and how ARIIA is strengthening the capability of the aged care workforce through research and innovation. Dr Dizon was successfully awarded the Academic Professional Development for Overseas Conference Funding by the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University to participate in the Summit.

Held in Prague in September 2024, the Global Evidence Summit promoted the use of research evidence in health, social care and policy decision-making. Key areas of focus included the United Nations sustainable development agenda; research integrity making evidence accessible; the power of synergy in evidence synthesis and synthesis products; evidence translation and implementation; advocating for greater evidence communication and use of evidence; and global evidence to local impact. 

Discussions focused on challenging and complex issues prominent in the global landscape such as health and social inequities; misinformation; gaps between evidence, practice and policy; and the misuse of technological advancements. 

The rapid advancements transforming what once seemed impossible, such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in evidence synthesis, were interesting topics of discussion. While AI can accelerate progress, it lacks the intuition and nuanced understanding that human judgment offers. In fields such as healthcare and aged care, this can result in suboptimal or potentially risky decisions. Hence, robust methodologies, careful regulation, ethical considerations, and a balanced approach are essential for its responsible use.

Participants at the Summit were encouraged to network, attend multidisciplinary workshops, and engage with leaders to enhance the use of reliable evidence in addressing current challenges. The Summit also strongly encouraged collaboration between different organisations and sectors, underlining the significance of interdisciplinary dialogue in evidence production and application.  

The Summit highlighted the crucial role evidence plays in health, social care and policy decision-making, as well as in aged care. Evidence helps ensure that care provided to older adults is based on the best available knowledge, improving outcomes for both individuals and the wider healthcare system. As the leader of the positive transformation of aged care across Australia,  ARIIA was represented in this international gathering of organisations, researchers and diverse stakeholders who share the mission of improving lives by using evidence to guide research and practice. 

At the Summit, Dr Dizon outlined ARIIA’s highly regarded Innovator Training Program (now Innovation Capability Program (ICP) and Knowledge and Implementation Hub (the Hub). The ICP provides the workforce with skills and tools to use the evidence that is available, and the Hub provides trustworthy, evidence-based and freely accessible information tailored to aged care workers, service providers, older Australians and their families. Of particular value to users, the Hub provides access to evidence and resources on topics identified by those working in the sector as high-priority issues. The ICP and the Hub work together to support knowledge transfer in aged care in Australia. 

ARIIA continues to shape the future of aged care by creating purposeful and significant impact, not just within Australia but also on a global level.

​Paul Ross

Librarian & Information Specialist, ARIIA

Aged care is complex, and it's essential to draw on a wide range of evidence to ensure the delivery of high-quality care. An evidence-based approach combines the best available research with professional expertise while considering consumer preferences and values to guide and deliver effective care. While we discussed other approaches in our previous blogs, this post explores bibliographic databases and how they can empower you to find trusted, evidence-based information. If the concept of finding evidence is new to you, try out our mini course on ‘What is evidence and how can I find it?’. 

Bibliographic databases are digital collections that provide access to a wide range of literature, including books, journal articles, conference papers, and reports. While many databases require a subscription or are available through libraries and educational institutions, some allow free searching and provide links to either articles for a cost or open-access (free) content. This makes it easier for users to find and access relevant research, whether through subscription services or freely available sources. Several databases are available for evidence into ageing and provide the ability to set up reminders to your email of new content added in your field of interest. Databases also enable you to gather a wide amount of information related to your inquiry and can be limited by date to manage and screen the results.

Most databases allow you to search using free-text (keywords) or thesaurus terms (a specialised vocabulary unique to each database). Start by compiling a list of key terms related to your inquiry. You can do this by finding relevant articles online and extracting terms or by using an AI tool to generate potential keywords. From this list, you can build a basic search. Many databases provide help sections to guide you through this process (some require you to combine terms into ‘search strings’ or use them in specific ways).

Once you have your search results, you can screen them for relevance and refine your results using system tools to filter by language, date, country or context, or publication type. Most databases also allow you to download citation lists in various formats for easier management outside the database. Additionally, they should indicate whether the full text of an article is freely available or if access requires a fee.

Pro-tip: Systematic reviews can be a valuable source of keywords. These reviews, often available in open-access articles, typically include detailed appendices with the search terms and strategies. You can leverage these terms to build or refine your own searches in the same database.

Pro-tip: Standard searches can yield a lot of irrelevant information, which requires extensive reading. To streamline this, use pre-existing search filters developed by librarians and researchers. These filters are designed to gather the most relevant information on specific topics, saving you time and effort in constructing searches from scratch.

Pro-tip: Finding evidence efficiently depends on both time and expertise. That's why we've developed our aged care search collection to provide quick access to relevant information using the PubMed database and other online sources. This collection also includes guidance on how to create or adjust your own searches.

Searching databases doesn’t have to be overwhelming. They can give you access to valuable evidence-based information that isn’t always available through general online searches. By combining database searches with additional online research and links to key organisations, you can ensure a comprehensive review of all relevant sources to address your inquiry.

This is our final blog in our series into searching for aged care information online. To visit our previous blogs on the subject of searching online, check out our introduction, search sources and organisation sources blogs.

*The views and opinions expressed in Knowledge Blogs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of ARIIA, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.