For the past year, we have been refining Archstone Foundation’s strategic plan and theory of change: Promoting teams, enhancing training, and improving technology are central to increasing coordinated care among health, social services and related systems – and are also essential for reducing health disparities and increasing equity of outcomes.
This work led us to synthesize our thinking about each of our Three T strategies in papers we have named Calls to Partnership, our way of inviting potential grantees to consider how their work aligns with our mission to improve the health and well-being of all older Californians and their caregivers.
This post features our Call to Partnership for Improving Technology.
Earlier installments were about promoting teams and enhancing training as keys to improving the health and well-being of older Californians and their caregivers.
Unlocking the Power of Technology to Improve Care
Understanding the current gaps in health and social services technology, and the potential for closing them, is a critical beginning to fulfilling this aspect of the Foundation's mission.
Technology is ubiquitous in the daily lives of people of all ages. While millions benefit from today's information exchange landscape, too many older adults have been left to navigate a system designed without their needs in mind. While this digital divide is large, Archstone Foundation believes in the power of partnerships and effective funding to create a future where better and more universally available technology helps integrate health and social services, connects more people, and improves the health of all older adults. We envision technologies that facilitate teamwork, make training accessible and more efficient, and promote coordinated care. Caring for people with complex needs, individual preferences, and evolving goals requires more efficient and effective sharing of data among providers, caregivers, and the people being cared for. We believe technology is up to this challenge.
Technology in Action: The HomeMeds Model
Technological innovations that work best for older adults must be designed for ready integration into the workflow of care teams, must be supported with adequate training, and must keep the patient at the center.
This is exemplified by the HomeMeds model developed by Partners in Care Foundation of San Fernando, a longtime Foundation grantee. HomeMeds is software provided to care coordinators and community health workers making home visits. It identifies potentially dangerous drug interactions or other medication errors and then facilitates connections to pharmacists or geriatric nurse practitioners capable of assessing the concerns more thoroughly. Partners in Care Foundation’s training, technical assistance, and licensing workflow, as well as HomeMeds’ reliance on team-based care coordination, enables the system to save lives and reduce the number of expensive or even unnecessary trips to emergency departments.
Focus on Justice and Equity
While championing such technology successes, Archstone Foundation is aware that technology is too often unavailable to address the needs of all individuals. The spread of the best technology is challenged in ways that extend beyond racial and wealth disparities. For example, many rural areas still lack access to the sort of robust internet infrastructure now commonplace in cities and suburbs — and broadband internet is a prerequisite for many technological solutions. While funding to address this disparity is being allocated by the federal and California governments, the Foundation views it as critically important to take into account the unique needs of older adults by convening relevant partners and community members to drive sustainable change.
With a focus throughout all our grantmaking on improving justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, the Foundation is committed to finding ways to reduce disparities in access to technology that disadvantage older adults and their caregivers. Our grantmaking aims to reduce these inequalities by funding solutions that not only work for communities but also improve access to resources and providers who may be thousands of miles away. High-speed internet and digital competence are necessary to fully participate in the growing world of health information exchanges, which can give patients ready access to their own medical information and more agency in developing their own care plans. The Foundation is looking for ways to close persistent gaps in broadband access and digital literacy.
Funding Principles and Opportunities for Partnership
The needs have never been greater to understand our technology landscape in relation to the needs of older adults, promote projects that enable integrated and coordinated health and social services, and develop partnerships with other leaders in this area. Archstone Foundation will support collaborations and partnerships, research and evaluations, and pilot programs that connect health and social services to older adults through health information technologies.
We see strong opportunities to fund organizations who are seeking to achieve measurable outcomes through technology programs that will:
- Research and evaluate efforts that quantify, better identify, and explain the data exchange and technology-enabled service gaps and resource needs to facilitate cross-sector team-based care for older adults.
- Test technology-enabled services and data exchange interventions that improve team-based care and better integrate and coordinate care across health and human services providers.
- Build partnerships with philanthropies, state agencies, and others to leverage funding and expertise to identify promising programs and opportunities and evaluate outcomes for their populations of focus.
Through partnerships with community-based nonprofits, local and state entities, health systems, and others, we can advance the equitable, inclusive, and impactful sharing of information and data. Our vision is of a future where better and more widely available technology enhances coordinated care and improves program effectiveness.
Carly Roman contributed to this post.
