BACKGROUND
There has been a rapid shift towards adoption of virtual healthcare services in Australia. It is unknown how widely virtual care has been implemented or evaluated for the care of older adults in Australia.
OBJECTIVE
To review literature evaluating virtual care initiatives for older adults across a wide range of health conditions and modalities and identify key challenges and opportunities for wider adoptions at both patient and system levels in Australia.
METHODS
A scoping review of the literature was conducted. Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, AgeLine and grey literature (1 January 2011 – 8 March 2021) were searched to identify virtual care initiatives for older Australians (≥65 years of age). Results are reported according to the World Health Organisation digital health evaluation framework.
RESULTS
Among the 6,201 documents in the search results, we identified 94 documents that reported 80 unique virtual care initiatives. The majority were pilot studies (89%) targeting community-dwelling older adults (81%) with chronic disease (65%). Mode of delivery included videoconference, telephone, apps, device/monitoring systems and web-based technologies. Most initiatives showed either similar or better health and behavioural outcomes compared to in-person care. Key barriers for wider adoption were physical, cognitive, or sensory impairment in older adults; and staffing issues, legislative issues, and a lack of motivation among providers.
CONCLUSIONS
Virtual care is a viable model of care to address a wide range of health conditions in older adults in Australia. More embedded and integrative evaluations are needed to ensure virtually enabled care can be used more widely by older Australians and providers.