Freida Pemberton
Molloy College USA
Title: Tailored to Fit: The Health Guardian for Longevity Program Designed to Sustain Healthy Life Behaviors
Biography
Biography: Freida Pemberton
Abstract
Following five missions to provide healthcare programs for communities in Ghana, Togo, and Benin, West Africa where the average life-span is age 50, the notion to create an individualized tailored-fitted tele health program that incorporated virtual and mobile technology for sustainability was generated. The conditions of hypertension, diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, mal-nutrition, and heart disease contributed to the shortened life-span. These conditions continue to challenge health care providers to produce innovative solutions that will not only resolve their patient-clients’ existing health problems, but reduce their future occurrences. This data generated the creation of the Health Guardian for Longevity Program. The Health Guardian for Longevity Program takes in hand the patients’ assessed health data, mobilizing the powerful tools of mobile, interactive, remote, video, and virtual technologies, as well as selected learning models and behavioral theories, to treat patients as individuals, applying a tailored-centered approach to healthcare. This multifaceted approach allowed caregivers and their patients to focus on the needs to restore, maintain, and integrate healthier behavioral practices. The qualitative pilot study explored the impact of patients’ online use of the Health Guardian for Longevity Program related to their health status and sustainability following a healthcare crisis. In this pilot study, data was randomly collected from 100 participants in Benin, West Africa, who utilized the Health Guardian for Longevity Program for a period of 1.5 years. Qualitative surveys and focus groups were assembled to gather data. The collection of data was analyzed using the QDA Miner Lite software program with themes developed and interpreted for meaning. This study was guided by prior research on the benefits of tailored-centered patient care, the meaningful use of technology in healthcare, and telehealth practice. The results of the analyzed data identified both effective and ineffective practices related to the use of the Health Guardian for Longevity Program. The findings from this pilot research study provided specific strategies for sustainability of quality healthcare using telehealth practice, virtual, and mobile devices. The increased utilization of the Health Guardian for Longevity Program has the potential to shape how care is delivered using an interactive, web-based custom health promotion program.