Abstract:

Telemedicine is still an uncontested space in Poland (Chan Kim, Mauborgne, 2015). Exploring it in detail is worthwhile, because it can affect the process of successful aging, whose rates are very low in Poland (OECD, 2017, Online). Telemedicine and telehealth can offer elderly people an important value – autonomy and independence. It also makes the monitoring of the health condition and vital functions of the elderly possible, which is an additional asset in the times of the pandemic. The article discusses the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization of knowledge about what seniors actually expect of telemedical solutions and which solutions they accept and reject. The research proceeded in three stages. The unobtrusive measures method was applied in the first stage, comparative analysis in the second stage, and a survey on the usefulness of telemedicine devices in the third stage (Babbie, 2004; Webb, 1966; Øyen, 1990). The aim of the survey was to design an optimized device for the elderly, according to the rules of the Design Thinking process (Brown, 2009; Brown, Wyatt, 2010).