Schaller et al.

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58

DOI 10.1186/s12911-015-0182-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access

Tailored e-Health services for the dementia

care setting: a pilot study of
‘eHealthMonitor’
Sandra Schaller1*, Velislava Marinova-Schmidt1, Jasmin Gobin1, Manfred Criegee-Rieck2, Lena Griebel2,
Sabine Engel3, Veronika Stein3, Elmar Graessel4 and Peter L Kolominsky-Rabas1

Abstract
Background: The European eHealthMonitor project (eHM) developed a user-sensitive and interactive web portal
for dementia care: the eHM Dementia Portal (eHM-DP). It aims to provide targeted and personalized support for
informal caregivers of people with dementia in a home-based care setting. The objective of the pilot study was to
obtain feedback on the eHM-DP from two user perspectives (caregivers and medical professionals), focusing on
caregiver empowerment, decision aid, and the perceived benefits of the eHM-DP.
Methods: The study on the eHM-DP was conducted from March 2014 to June 2014. The methodological approach
followed a user-participatory design with a total number of 42 participants. The study included caregivers of people
with dementia and medical professionals (MPs) from the metropolitan region of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Bavaria,
Germany). Study participants were interviewed face-to-face with semi-structured, written interviews.
Results: Caregivers indicated a high degree of perceived support by the eHM-DP and of provided decision aid. In
total, 89 % of caregivers and 54 % of MPs would use the eHM-DP if access were provided. The primary benefits
participants perceived were the acquisition of individualized information, computerized interaction between caregivers
and MPs, empowerment in health-related decisions and comprehensive insights into the progress of the disease. Major
recommendations for improving the eHM-DP encompassed: an active search functionality based on predefined terms,
the implementation of a chatroom for caregivers, an upload function and alerts for MPs, as well as the overall design.
Conclusions: Our study is the first to have provided new insights and results on an interactive and needs-oriented
web portal, endeavouring towards empowerment and assistance in decision making for caregivers as well as MPs
within the realm of caring for patients with dementia. The acceptance and willingness to use the eHM-DP emphasizes
the potential of eHealth services for community-based dementia care settings.
Keywords: e-health, Web portal, Dementia, Caregiver

Background (PwD), families and healthcare systems [1]. Particu-

The need for care in dementia starts early and larly spouses and children (informal caregivers) pro-
increases with alongside the severity of the disease, vide extensive care, while facing different challenges
affecting multiple dimensions such as support for and, thus, often suffering from additional physical and
household, financial and social activities, up to nearly emotional burdens [2–7]. Therefore, services that target the
constant supervision at severe stages. This implicates aid and assistance for informal caregivers are essential.
a high impact of dementia on people with dementia Against this background and due to the projected increase
in the number of PwD worldwide [8, 9], there is an urgent
need for cost-effective support services.
* Correspondence: [email protected]
1
Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Public
In the context of aging societies, several studies have
Health, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, highlighted the potential of e-Health services, due to
Germany more readily available internet access and the benefits of
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

© 2015 Schaller et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://
creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 2 of 9

flexibility, facilitated accessibility and personalized service of-disease diary’ and the ‘medication diary’ target the
[10–14]. However, a sustainable implementation of e- progression of the disease, the overall health status
Health technologies requires including all the stakeholders and the safety of PwD.
that are involved. A lack of user involvement often results The purpose of our pilot study is to obtain feedback
in usability problems and higher attrition rates [16]. Thus, on the eHM-DP for caregivers of PwD and MPs early
frameworks for e-Health technologies emphasize the in the eHM-DP development process, focusing on
importance of continuous and systematic evaluations of empowerment, decision aid, perceived benefits, most
e-Health services from the user’s perspective early in promising functionalities as well as recommendations
the development process [16–18]. eHealthMonitor for further improvement.
(eHM)’s pilot study aims to involve all users early in the
software development process to enable a user-friendly Methods
and suitable design. The overall aim of eHM is to provide The eHealthMonitor Dementia Portal functionalities
individualized, personal health knowledge relevant to (eHM-DP)
dementia stakeholders, accompanied with an improve- The architecture of the eHM-DP can be divided in three
ment in the quality and acceptance of electronic health- different layers (see Additional file 1): The Presentation
care services. Interactive e-Health support services for layer, represented by the Web Portal, is the front-end of
caregivers have yet to become widely used in real-life the platform. The eHealthMonitor end-users will
healthcare situations in the dementia care setting. Based exploit the platform by directly interacting with this
on the identified user needs, a result of a carefully and layer. The Smart layer, composed of the Knowledge on
comprehensively determining the necessary requirements demand subsystem, the Semantic subsystem and the
capture (which has been emphasized in previous studies Multi-agent subsystem, are the core components of the
[10, 12, 18–21]), the eHM Dementia Portal (eHM-DP) platform. The communication and the integration of
was developed for the home-based dementia care setting these three modules enables the provision of personal-
[22]. To our knowledge, our study is the first of a personal- ized and dynamic health recommendations delivered to
ized and interactive web portal, aiming at empowerment the eHealthMonitor stakeholders through the above-
and decision aid while considering the perspectives of care- mentioned presentation layer.
givers and MPs. Currently, the majority of internet-based, The Data Layer is composed of the external services
supportive interventions for caregivers in dementia are providing medical and environmental information to
websites or specific educational programs. A minority of the upper layers. The technical design of the eHM-DP
evaluated and published studies were similar to the was brought forth by means of a service-oriented archi-
eHM-DP with respect to a combination of information tecture (SOA) based on the open-source web platform
support and interaction functionalities [23–25]. Fur- Liferay, modelling and semantic knowledge engineering
ther online tools such as offered by the Alzheimer’s and multi-agent systems (MAS) [27, 28]. In brief, the
Association (e.g. Caregiver Stress Check [26]) aim to available knowledge and data sources are first identified
help find answers, local resources and support, however and described using modelling toolkits. Afterwards
do not provide interaction with a medical professional. In ontologies are used to semantically lift and integrate the
overall comparison, the eHM-DP differed from previous available data by resolving syntactic, structural, and
e-Health service solutions for caregivers in in the combin- semantic heterogeneities. Finally, agent systems are used
ation of seven major respects as requested by users: (1) an to resolve different privacy requirements and conflicting
interactive and personalized portal with a personal interests, and to reason on existing data. The process of
account, (2) computerized communication between MPs information integration and maintenance of knowledge is
and caregivers, (3) tailored support services according to semi-automatic and two-tiered. In a first stage agents
user-specific data in caregiving diaries, (4) a focus on care- review periodically the content of websites identified as
giver empowerment and decision aid, (5) addressing the relevant source of information. In case of updated infor-
role of MPs, (6) providing individual & longitudinal mation compared to last review, domain experts analyze
data on the home-based care setting and the course of this update and decide about need of incorporation in
the disease (symptoms, medication, well-being), (7) eHM-DP. The technology used is similar to a mashup.
provision of individual & longitudinal data on caregiv- [27] and [28] provide further information on insights into
ing tasks and the caregivers’ health status. A further the technological infrastructure of the eHM-DP.
strength of the eHM-DP is its inclusion of a medical Based on the aforementioned technologies and rapid
professional who is able to receive information on and iterative design process between technical and med-
both – the caregiver’s and PwD’s healthcare parame- ical partners, caregivers’ needs were integrated based on
ters. While the ‘caregiving diary’ feature focuses on the a) a caregiver focus group, b) interviews with experts in
caregiver’s well-being and living situation, the ‘course- the field and c) reviews of current scientific and
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 3 of 9

evidence-based literature. User access to the eHM-DP the portal (messaging feature) or directly (appointment,
was provided via a customizable personal account, thus telephone) (Fig. 1).
enabling individualized support services by means of a
user-specific profile and user-specific diary entries as
quantitative instruments. The eHM-DP is personalized Study design
and interactive (Fig. 1), focusing on: The pilot study on eHM-DP was conducted in the metro-
politan region of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). A re-
(1) An interactive, situation-specific and individualized search design with active user participation based on
provision of information and knowledge semi-structured, written interviews was applied to
investigate the user’s various attitudes towards and
Based on the individual registration profiles as well impressions of the eHM-DP. The stimulus within our pilot
as the electronic diary entries of caregivers (caregiving study was an extensive demonstration of the pilot eHM-
diary, course-of-disease diary, medication diary), the DP and user-specific functionalities. The eHM-DP was
portal provides individualized, timely and situation- semi-functional with realization of pivotal benefiting soft-
specific information. Information results consist of ware features. After an introduction, the eHM-DP was
existing and approved information/guidelines and accessed by the presenter, using a dummy account and
existing infrastructures (e.g. factsheets by the German dummy data representing an informal caregiver. Based on
Alzheimer Association, Ministry of Health, or local the individual profile, the eHM-DP functionalities were
dementia institutions/groups) and of proposed recom- demonstrated and explained to informal caregivers. For
mendations as communicated by MPs via a messaging MPs, the eHM-DP was demonstrated using an account of
feature within the eHM-DP. a medical doctor (dummy data). During the demonstra-
tion, questions from study participants were allowed and
(2) Communication with domain experts on dementia explanations given. Each demonstration lasted on average
60 to 90 min. Afterwards, the semi-structured interviews
The eHM-DP aims at facilitating and enabling close were conducted by trained researchers. The interviews
communication and interaction between caregivers and were developed according to our research questions and
MPs, striving towards minimizing any burdens care- included information on 1) caregiver needs, 2) empower-
givers may experience while improving the PwD’s qual- ing caregivers, 3) medical decision aid and 4) perceived
ity of life. Based on individual diary entries (symptoms, benefits or recommendations and 5) socio-demographic
well-being, caregiving, medication) as well as specific data (Additional file 2 provides an overview of the main
questions (free text answers), MPs are informed by the items of the semi-structured interview for participants).
eHM-DP (e.g. alerts) and able to provide support via Each interview lasted approximately 45 min.

Fig. 1 Illustrative representation of the eHM-DP

Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 4 of 9

Based on the interview guide developed for the pur- Results

pose of the study, all interviewers were trained at spe- A total of 42 participants (31 caregivers; 11 MPs) took
cific workshops before the study. The pilot study was part in the pilot study. 46 % of the MPs came from a
conducted from 01/03/2014 to 30/06/2014 and caregiver support institution (caregiver counsellors;
approved by the local ethics committee of University n = 5), 27 % from the Memory Clinic (physicians; n = 3)
of Erlangen-Nürnberg’s Medical Faculty, (Germany). and 27 % from a day care institution/nursing home (pro-
All participants were informed of the objectives and fessional caregivers; n = 3). The mean age was 43 years
the scope of the study, and provided their informed (SD = 12.5; min = 25; max = 58) and almost two thirds
consent for participation. Data collection and analysis (64 %) were female. Furthermore, 31 caregivers, 25 to
was conducted with exclusively anonymized data. 83 years old, participated in the study. The mean age was
Convenience samples were gathered throughout the 58 years (SD = 15.1) and over two thirds (77 %) of the
development process: caregivers were recruited from caregivers were female. The caregivers were primarily
a) the Memory Clinic at the University Hospital of spouses (36 %) or children (23 %), followed by relatives
Erlangen and b) three caregiver support institutions (23 %) and friends (13 %). The health information source
from the metropolitan region of Erlangen-Nuremberg ‘internet’ was rated ‘very relevant’ by 43 % of the caregivers
in Germany. Eligibility criteria for caregivers included: and as ‘relevant’ by 23 %, whereas a further 23 % had
a) primarily responsible, as an informal caregiver, for a chosen ‘undecided’ with the remaining 10 % choosing
person with dementia (according to the International ‘less/not important’. In total 87 % of the caregivers indi-
Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related cated having used the internet for obtaining health-related
Health Problems, Version 10 (ICD-10): F00 ‘Dementia information. More detailed information on the informal
in Alzheimer disease’; F01: ‘Vascular dementia’; F02: caregivers is provided in Table 1.
‘Dementia in other diseases classified elsewhere’ and
F03: ‘Unspecified dementia’) living at home, b) at least
Informal caregiver needs and empowerment
18 years of age and c) able to speak, read, and write
Caregivers indicated a high degree of perceived, individual
German. We defined informal caregivers as individuals
support from the eHM-DP (average mean = 2.2; SD = 0.9
who provide regular care to a closely related person in
on a 5-point Likert Scale from 1=’I totally agree’ to 5=’I
need of help for a long period of time, and who did
disagree’; [31]). The provision of individualized information
not choose caregiving as an occupation (according to
on dementia treatment, local support services, and strat-
Graessel et al. [29]). Table 1 provides an overview of
egies for preventing caregiver burdens were perceived as
the caregivers who participated in the study. In
the most useful functionalities (Table 2). In addition, the
addition, eleven MPs were recruited from the Memory
majority of the informal caregivers expressed the need for
Clinic at the University Hospital of Erlangen, caregiver
an active-search functionality based on pre-defined terms.
support institutions and day-care/nursing home institu-
The category ‘more social contacts’ was perceived as less
tions. Eligibility criteria for MPs included: a) qualified
useful, however the recommendation for a chatroom
personal in dementia treatment and/or care, b) residing
within the eHM-DP was expressed as useful (n = 3) in this
in the metropolitan region of Erlangen-Nuremberg, c)
context. Caregivers highlighted several issues that are rele-
at least 18 years of age and d) able to speak, read, and
vant for the daily use of the eHM-DP: hard-copies and a
write German.
quantitative summary of diary entries, an emergency hot-
line, and technical support for those less proficient in using
the internet.
Data analysis
Furthermore, the most supportive quality of the eHM-
Data collection and analysis was conducted with exclu-
DP related to decision making [32] proved to be ‘prepar-
sively anonymized data. The paper-based, semi-structured
ation for doctor visit’ (87 % consent), ‘elaboration of the
interviews were captured electronically using SPSS Data
pros and cons of each option’ (80 % consent) and ‘identi-
Collection Data Entry 7.0. Afterwards, participants were
fication of questions for the doctor’ (76 % consent). In
separated into two user groups: Caregivers and MPs. Two
addition, 63 % of the caregivers reported finding the
researchers structured the data by inductive category
eHM-DP useful when caring for a PwD.
development according to Mayring (2000) [30]. The ‘sum-
mary content analysis’ technique was applied, in order to
reduce the material to core content or aspects. Thereby, Medical decision support for MPs
steps paraphrasing, generalization to the required level of The highest level of support with the eHM-DP was
abstraction, first reduction, second reduction [30] were noted as: ‘recognition that a decision has to be made’
applied. Descriptive analysis methods were applied using (80 %) and ‘preparation to make a better decision’
SPSS Statistics 21.0 software. (80 %). In total 78 % of the MPs indicated that the
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 5 of 9

Table 1 Informal caregiver characteristics

No. Sex Age Relationship to PwD Residential area Living together with PwD Professional status Support due to cognitive impairment (years)
01 M 61 Child R Yes Retired 8
02 F 83 Spouse R Yes Retired 5
03 F 66 Spouse R Yes Retired -
04 F 52 Relative R Yes Part-time employed 2
05 F 64 Relative R Yes Retired 2
06 F 31 Relative U No Part-time employed 1
07 F 71 Spouse U Yes Retired 2
08 F 71 Spouse U Yes Retired 4
09 F 68 Spouse U Yes Retired 2
10 F 76 Spouse U Yes Retired 3
11 M 74 Relative U No Retired 8
12 F 51 Child U No Full-time employed 1
13 F 55 Friend U No Homemaker 1
14 F 66 Friend U No Retired 3
15 F 52 Friend U No Homemaker 1
16 F 47 Friend U - Part-time employed -
17 F 54 Child U No Part-time employed 5
18 F 74 Spouse U Yes Retired 7
19 F 59 Child R Yes Full-time employed 3
20 F 25 Relative U Yes Full-time employed 3
21 F 41 Child R - Part-time employed -
22 M 29 Relative R - Part-time employed -
23 F - Relative U No Part-time employed 1
24 M 66 Spouse R Yes Retired 1
25 F 70 Spouse U No Retired Less than 1 year
26 F 32 Relative U No Part-time employed 1
27 M 50 Child R No Unemployed -
28 M 56 Spouse R Yes Full-time employed 1
29 F 67 Child U Yes Retired 3
30 F 53 Relative U No Full-time employed 2
31 M 75 Spouse R Yes Retired 10
Mean 58 (+/−15.1) 3.2 (+/−2.6)
(+/− SD)
F female, M male, R rural area, U urban area

eHM-DP provides relevant information that is normally instruments, improved design (colors, font size, less text),
very difficult to access (longitudinal data about the disease, the inclusion of information on medical history such as
time provided for care, caregiver burden, medication his- taking blood or ECG results, an improved interaction func-
tory). In total, 67 % of the MPs reported that the eHM-DP tionality for communication between MPs, the possibility
provides relevant information for medication treatment, of listing PwD based on priority levels and additional infor-
and 55 % stated that eHM-DP readily contributes to estab- mation such as local transportation possibilities.
lishing contact with another MP/specialist unit. Half of the
MPs answered that the eHM-DP facilitates weighing the Primary benefits and recommendations as perceived by
pros and cons of each (treatment) option. However, MPs the user
highlighted the need for further, additional functionalities The primary perceived benefits and advantages of the
within the eHM-DP: An upload function for documents/ eHM-DP for caregivers were: the acquisition of
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 6 of 9

Table 2 Informal caregivers’ perceived support from the eHM-DP (%)

1 2 3 4 5
I totally agree (%) I agree (%) Un-decided (%) I rather disagree (%) I disagree (%)
Informal caregivers’ perceived support by eHM (in %)
Knowledge about dementia 22 69 9 0 0
Knowledge about dementia treatment 26 74 0 0 0
Knowledge about (local) support services 39 61 0 0 0
Knowledge about financial aspects 26 57 4 13 0
Knowledge about legal aspects 28 55 17 0 0
Knowledge about communication strategies 17 44 35 0 4
Help in critical situations (problems caused by crisis) 23 35 12 18 12
More time for oneself 12 18 12 41 17
More social contacts 17 22 17 16 28
Knowledge about caregiving aspects (nursing skills) 26 43 22 9 0
Knowledge about prevention of caregiver burden 27 73 0 0 0

individualized information based on diary entries (55 %); irregular use of the eHM-DP (36 %), and increased
(35 %), an improved/enabled interaction with MPs administrative effort (18 %). Examples of quotes from study
(19 %), and empowerment regarding health-related de- participants are provided in Additional file 3.
cisions (19 %), followed by a detailed overview of the
course of the disease, provision of local support con- Discussion
tacts, financial support, real-time access for support This article describes the participation and perspective
and access from home. Caregivers reacted particularly of caregivers and MPs for an individualized, interactive
positive to the degree to which the provided informa- web portal (eHM-DP) early in the development process.
tion and support was tailored, thus saving them a great To our knowledge, our pilot study is the first of a
deal of time and facilitating the receipt of support ac- personalized and interactive web portal, aiming at em-
cording to their individual situation. Overall, 82 % of powerment and decision aid and including perspectives
the caregivers stated that the eHM-DP is a good con- of caregivers and MPs. Thus our study contributes to
cept and 89 % would use the eHM-DP if they had ac- scientific research by providing new insights into the
cess were provided. Altogether 79 % of the caregivers development of eHealth solutions in dementia care from
reported that it would be easy for them to become skill- two important user perspectives. This is crucial for the
ful at using the eHM-DP. The overwhelming vocal con- further development and uptake of eHealth services in
cerns about the eHM-DP were privacy and data the dementia care setting. Furthermore this is particu-
security (19 %). In addition, high time expenditure to larly relevant against the backdrop of an aging society
use the portal (13 %) and a lack of any personal contact and limited healthcare expenditures of health care sys-
with MPs (10 %) were mentioned. From the MPs’ per- tems, combined with an increasing number of informal
spective, the following perceived benefits of the eHM- caregivers willing to use internet and mobile electronic
DP were indicated: an overview of the PwD’s current devices [10, 15, 32–34].
living/medical situation in a home-based setting (55 %), The findings from our pilot study indicate the potential
improved interaction with caregivers (45 %), an improved of the eHM-DP for caregivers with regard to caregiver
use of existing dementia support services (27 %), a benefi- empowerment (knowledge, decision aid), facilitated access
cial overview of medication (18 %), improved interaction to health care services, and promoting interaction with
from the MPs involved in the treatment and care of a PwD MPs. Only a minority of participants expressed concerns
(18 %), empowerment of caregivers (9 %), an improved that the use of the eHM-DP would bring a lack of per-
quality of life for PwD/caregivers (9 %), improved access to sonal contact with MPs. This result is of great importance,
information for caregivers (9 %), improved compliance as the eHM-DP was designed to complement and not
(9 %), improved preparation for follow-up visits (9 %), the substitute existing treatment and care activities. However,
provision of information that is typically difficult to access the threat of technologies, to replace valued, human con-
(9 %). Overall, 54 % of MPs would use the eHM-DP if they tact has been reported in previous studies [21] and has to
had access to it, whereas 44 % of the participants indicated be taken into account carefully when introducing new
‘undecided’. Major concerns concerned data security technologies.
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 7 of 9

From the caregivers’ perspective, the implemented needed to investigate the cost-effectiveness of the eHM-DP.
diary features are helpful in increasing their awareness In addition, the eHM-DP would likely benefit from supple-
of symptoms and dementia-related topics. Further, in mental interaction between caregivers (chat, forum), which
providing assistance in making particular decisions on a was expressed by caregivers during our pilot study. In this
situation-to-situation basis in response to individual diary case, the eHM-DP would benefit from an identifica-
entries. One of three major factors that contributed to tion of existing local or international forums or chats
these findings was the quality of providing needs-oriented of high quality, such as offered by the Alzheimer’s
support with the help of the eHM-DP. The provision of Association (‘ALZConnected’ [35]). Further aspects
individualized information was rated as the most useful that must be taken into account for future portal
benefit as perceived by caregivers, which corroborates to development are average frequency of use, time of use
the findings by van der Roest et al. (2010) [25]. Major rea- as well as technical support.
sons for its perceived usefulness are the support for From the MPs’ perspective, the combination of diary
individual care situation (help), a reduction of time in features was perceived as very useful since essential and
searching for information and support, and real-time hard to access information that is relevant for medical
support. In addition, the functionality of an active treatment and care were duly provided, including: longi-
search form for specific terms and institutions was tudinal data on the course of the disease (cognition,
requested by caregivers. A second factor that contrib- ADL, IADL, disturbing behavior, mood, social behavior),
uted to our findings was the support provided for the longitudinal data on the circumstances revolving around
caregivers’ specific, unmet needs. These findings are in the home-based care (time provided for care, ADL,
line with the findings from Brodaty et al. (2005) [6], IADL, caregiver burden) as well as medication history
where the principal reason for the use of community (67 % of MPs reported that the eHM-DP contains rele-
services was the perceived support for unmet needs. vant information on medication treatment). MPs
The highest level of agreement for support was reported these as being the primary perceived benefits of
perceived for: increased knowledge in dementia treat- the eHM-DP, which could potentially also include a pre-
ment, knowledge about (local) support services and ventive aspect. For example, by the prevention of caregiver
knowledge about preventing any burdens that may burden, the eHM-DP has the potential to lower direct
arise while caring for PwD. By increasing awareness of (hospitalization, institutionalization) as well as informal
and knowledge on (local) support services, the eHM- costs of care in the dementia setting, particularly against
DP contributes to reduce barriers for the utilization of the backdrop of personal burden of informal care is one of
existing local support services. This is of great import- the main purposes for nursing home transfers [36, 37].
ance, as the lack of knowledge on existing services and However, further research is needed to examine this
dementia infrastructures contributes to one of the four hypothesis and its cost-effectiveness. A second benefit for
major reasons for non-use of such services [6]. Also, MPs concerns the improved interaction with caregivers as
findings from previous studies highlighted the advis- well as with other MPs involved in the dementia treatment
able priority of providing information on dementia and care process. Further optimization of the eHM-DP
services and accessing them [6, 30]. The third factor would benefit from institution-specific subgroup analysis
concerns the interaction between caregivers and MPs (e.g. memory clinic vs. caregiver counselling organization).
via the messaging function within the portal, which Synonymous to the caregivers’ perspective, data security
caregivers perceived as the second most useful benefit constituted one of the major concerns of MPs, too. The
of the eHM-DP. These findings are in line with those dilemmas around privacy and autonomy versus safety were
from Chiu et al. 2009 [23] where users felt that email com- already reported by Powell et al. [21] and its debate is cru-
munication was useful for expressing individual concerns cial for the uptake of an eHealth service. A further aspect
and receiving immediate support from a medical profes- was addressed as an insufficient use of the eHM-DP from
sional. The information provided and interactivity with both parties (caregivers and MPs). This is an understand-
MPs are major benefits, particularly for reaching caregivers able concern, as the effectiveness of the eHM-DP depends
that are immobile (‘home-bound’ due to health status or a on regular portal usage from both user groups. However,
lack of transport, public or otherwise) [6] or isolated (e.g. both, caregivers and MPs stressed the relevance of the
living in rural areas). Thus, the eHM-DP can lower the needs-oriented, perceived benefits of the eHM-DP, which is
threshold of access to health care services by accessing an important precondition for proactive and regular use of
support in the privacy of their own homes (without the portal [6, 21]. According to recommendations from a
leaving the PwD alone) and by collecting dementia- previous interview study on technologies for caregivers
specific information and knowledge sources. Additionally, of PwD [21], the eHM-DP shares the need for address-
the caregiver can use the eHM-DP whenever she/he is free ing the following key aspects to enhance the use of the
of caregiving duties. In this context, further research is portal: an active facilitation of the service uptake, the
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 8 of 9

need to address barriers of adoption (e.g. privacy issues, Further, our results provide useful insights into and limita-
impact on caregiver time, computer skills of users), and tions of future e-Health services and their evaluation in the
to emphasize the complementary character of the por- dementia care context. Upon implementing the reported
tal (no substitute to human contact). pilot results into the eHM-DP, further research will focus
In contrast to existing eHealth tools for informal on a) the cost-effectiveness and benefits of the eHM-DP in
caregivers of a PwD (e.g. DEM-DISC [25], Alzheimer’s real-life settings (at home/at work), b) the perceived bene-
Association Online Tools [26, 35]), the eHM-DP is in- fits for specific user subgroups as well as c) the integration
novative in providing an individualized and interactive of the eHM-DP into existing healthcare infrastructures.
web portal which provides specific and several benefits
for both, informal caregivers and medical professionals. Additional files
However, further eHM-DP development should exploit
potential synergy effects between existing, complemen- Additional file 1: Architecture of eHealthMonitor. This figure
tary systems, such as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)-sys- illustrates the technical architecture of eHealthMonitor.
tems (e.g. ALLADIN [38]), self-management systems like Additional file 2: Main items of the semi-structured interview for
participants. Additional file 2 illustrates the core items of the
SmartAssist2 [39], educational online courses (e.g. Mastery conducted semi-structured interviews with caregivers and MPs.
over Dementia [40]) or chatrooms (e.g. ALZConnected Additional file 3: Table of themes in content analysis. This table
[35], ANKER [41]). shows a table of themes identified in the content analysis of the
semi-structured interviews.
Limitations
Although the findings in our study provided essential Abbreviations
and new insights into the impact on e-Health support AAL: Ambient Assisted Living; CNA-D: Carer needs assessment in Dementia;
eHM: eHealthMonitor; eHM-DP: eHealthMonitor Dementia Portal;
services for caregivers of PwD and for MPs, there are ICD: International Classification of Diseases; MAS: Multiagent system;
certain limitations that must be taken into account. The MAX: Maximum; MIN: Minimum; MP: Medical professional; PeKS: Personal eHealth
first limitation is reflected in the rather small number of Knowledge Space; PrepDM: Preparation for Decision Making Scale; PwD: Person
with Dementia; RCT: Randomized controlled trial; SD: Standard deviation.
participants. However, the strength of our study is that
different user perspectives (caregivers, MPs) were
Competing interests
included. The second limitation was that no hands-on This manuscript contains original unpublished work and has not submitted
practice was executed while demonstrating the function- for publication elsewhere. The authors declare that there are no conflicts of
interest.
ality and use of the eHM-DP, although a demonstration
itself was provided. As outlined in the introduction and
Authors’ contributions
methods sections, the aim of our pilot study was to SS designed the study, coordinated, prepared (interviewer training) and
involve the user’s perspective early in the development organized data collection and was responsible for the statistical design and
process of the eHM-DP. However a field trial of the data analysis as well as for writing the paper. VM and JG were responsible for
data collection and preparing the data. MC and LG were responsible for
portal at the last stage of the project, including the im- designing the study from the perspective of a medical-technician with a focus
plementation of the pilot study’s results should provide on the relationship between the technical features and the perceived benefits.
new insights into the impact of the eHM-DP on day-to- Both provided insightful suggestions for interpreting and discussing the study’s
results, and assisted in writing the paper. EG, SE and VS contributed to the pilot
day circumstances of caregivers and MPs. study by providing expert advice from the perspective of a medical professional
in the dementia care setting. EG offered relevant advice on interpreting, and
Conclusion discussing the study results. PLK supervised and designed the study, was
involved in data collection and aided in writing the paper. All authors have read
Our results indicate that the eHM-DP has the potential the paper and contributed to discussing the results.
to meet a number of demands and needs of caregivers of
PwD in a home-based care setting. The perceived benefits Acknowledgements
and willingness to use the system, combined with an We would like to express our special thanks to each of the family caregivers
who contributed to the success of this study by giving their opinions and ideas
increasing number of adults who use the internet regularly, to the design and functionalities of the dementia web portal eHealthMonitor.
emphasize the potential of personalized and web-based We also thank the staff at the regional offices of the Alzheimer’s Society,
support services for caregivers. Assistance in decision caregiver counselling services (C. Lottes, A. Ober, P. Mönius-Gittelbauer, H.
Volkmann) and the Memory Clinic of the University Hospital Erlangen for their
making and empowering caregivers are essential to lower- continued support. Further, we especially wish to extend our thanks to all the
ing and preventing caregiver burden affiliated work and/or eHealthMonitor consortium partners.
stresses. E-health interventions can be an efficient alterna- Finally, we thank Paul Gahman (Language Center, Friedrich-Alexander University
of Erlangen-Nürnberg) for proofreading our manuscript, and the provision of
tive to provide personalized support for caregivers at very helpful comments and explanations. This study was financed by the
reduced costs [18]. This is especially true for aging societies European Commission, FP7-project eHealthMonitor (ID 287509) and supported
and limited expenditures of health care systems. The results by the Emerging Fields Initiative (EFI) – Project Human Rights in Healthcare – at
the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. The present work was
from the pilot study will be considered in future portal performed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining the degree
development and questionnaires for the final field trial. “Dr. rer. biol. hum.”
Schaller et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2015) 15:58 Page 9 of 9

Author details 21. Powell J, Gunn K, Griffiths F, Lowe P, Clarke A, Sheehan B. The role of
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Health Services Research in Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Value Health. 2013;16:A551–2.
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