Challenges towards a Connected Community Healthcare Ecosystem (CCHE) for managing long-term conditions

Background Societal, demographic and economic changes have encouraged us to reconsider how we deliver health and social care to older people and their families in our communities. The emergence of ‘Connected Health’ (CH), through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has gained increased attention. CH is considered to offer the potential for cost-effective, innovative care solutions which can help to support and empower older people and family carers. In doing so there exists potential to help older people and family carers manage the impact of living with long-term conditions (LTC) at home. Method We undertook a systematic mapping study to (i) identify the key challenges for older people suffering from long-term conditions and their carers and (ii) explore how CH could support older people suffering from long-term conditions and their carers. This article presents a review and mapping of the current status of CH with a particular focus on the use of ICT to empower older people and their families to manage LTC. Results The findings identify key challenges to LTC and the drivers for the emergence of CH presented as a Connected Community Healthcare Ecosystem (CCHE). This work also provides a roadmap for future research. Moving forward there is a need to engage all key stakeholders of older people, family carers, policy makers and health care practitioners to examine alternative healthcare models alongside those who develop ICT solutions.