Development of a telehealthcare system for community-dwelling older adults by using a collaborative quality function deployment tool

The aim of this study is to develop a telehealthcare system with an agent-based approach that measures and manages medical information. With this information, the elderly can understand their own health state and medical professionals can decide further treatment. Accordingly, the adjustable criteria for metabolic syndrome based on the national health database were applied to the telehealthcare system to support the system's evaluation of health states. Furthermore, in order to increase the elderly population's accepta nce of the high-tech system, we utilize the collaborative QFD tool to decrease the satisfaction by collecting and refining the requirement of both the elderly and the medical professionals. To achieve these goals, the proposed system encompasses five modules: (a) transmission and management of the medical information of the elderly througha wireless sensor network; (b) a user-friendly interface that the elderly can use independently and can useto understand their own health states; and (c) a user-friendly environment that makes it practical for medical professionals to adjust the criteria of the metabolic syndrome depending on the constitute ion of people those professionals are serving. Furthermore, the proposed system was validated by a session to test the acceptance of older adults. The questionnaire was modelled after the questionnaire used to evaluate user acceptance of information technology. The result preliminarily presented the usefulness and achievement of the system that prompts not only older adults' intention but also their behaviour.