Older people with and without dementia participating in the development of an individual plan with digital calendar and message board

The EU‐funded project ‘Middleware Platform for eMPOWERing older people and people with cognitive impairments ‐ MPOWER’ is aimed at developing a technical middleware platform that enables rapid development of flexible, domain‐specific applications that can be personalised for individual use. We focused on creating a set of reusable components that can easily be combined in order to provide the most relevant services in the user's home, eg. calendar services, messaging services and different sensor technologies. In order to evaluate the feasibility of the platform, two full‐scale proof of concept applications (POCAs) were developed and deployed to real‐life environments; one ‘smart home’ solution in Poland and one individual internet‐based digital plan in Norway. This paper presents the findings from the POCA development and trial in Norway.Seven older people and their family carers from the municipality of Trondheim participated in the pilot trial (February 2008‐April 2009), which aimed to evaluate the services provided through an individual internet‐based digital plan displayed as a calendar page. Both family carers and staff from domiciliary services could, from their home computer, add appointments and messages on the user's digital calendar. The respondents were five women and two men, aged between 65 and 92, and only three of them, the two men and one of the women, had used a computer before getting involved in the MPOWER trial.Data collection regarding use, usability, utility and acceptance took place on a regular basis after a preset schedule. Analysis followed the developmental evaluation theory, which is useful when there is uncertainty about the effects (value) of an intervention, and when it is uncertain what causes or influences these effects. Results were presented as case histories, and the analysis of the causes of the observed effects are presented in a discussion section and divided into personal, technical and structural issues.The main conclusion is that the digital calendar with a message board demonstrated the potential to support older people at home, particularly older people with memory problems who need support in structuring the day and keeping an overview of their daily activities and appointments.