This report from the National Alliance for Caregiving, funded by UnitedHealthcare, describes the role of health information technologies in supporting family caregivers. As information and communication technologies continue to be adopted and utilized to improve health care, family caregivers may be able to use these technologies to support both the patients they care for as well as their own role as caregivers. This report is based on online survey responses from 1,000 self-identified family caregivers.
The three technologies that were of most interest to the family caregivers were personal health record tracking, caregiving coordination and medication support. Family caregivers were also interested in caregiving training simulations and caregiving decision support tools.
The report also provides data about caregiving by age, gender and race that will be useful to those trying to improve care coordination and health care quality, especially for the chronically ill and the elderly.
Ignatius Bau 