The purpose of CU@Home is to understand the feasibility of using a technology-based intervention to proactively assess the home and community environment of older adults scheduled for joint replacement surgeries. The feasibility study is conducting an in-depth literature review; a series of interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (primary care physicians and clinical staff, discharge planners, home health nurses, patients and families) to clearly understand all aspects of the problem; and to explore potential data needs, data sources, and technological solutions required to develop this intervention.
Sponsor: Clemson Faculty Research Development Program
Project period: 2019 to 2020
The overall broader research plan of this multidisciplinary team is to develop a technology-based intervention that could be used prior to joint replacement surgeries to help older adults evaluate their own homes for safety risks and to identify resources in their community to support home modifications. We envision that this tool would support both the clinical team as well as the older adult and their families in coming up with built environment solutions that would prevent falls and support their care needs. The tool would also help the patient access resources in their community to enable home modifications and to support safe recovery post-surgery. We also envision that this tool would be connected to the patient’s health record or patient portal such that this data will be available to other care teams that interact with the patient at different stages (e.g. a hospital discharge planner who may need to need to know key characteristics of the home while transitioning a patient back after a hospital stay).
