Multicriteria Evaluation of the Internet of Things Potential in Health Care: The Case of Dementia Care

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly developing field and has the potential to significantly impact the healthcare industry. However, little research has been done in to investigate the IoT potential for seniors with chronic diseases and special needs, such as dementia and Alzheimer patients. It is crucial for decision makers, such as health care services providers, governments, clinics, etc., to be able to assess different types of IoT applications in relation to the specific nature of dementia. This paper utilizes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and attempts to develop a multicriteria model in order to evaluate the potential of various IoT technologies applications in dementia care. Six IoT-based healthcare services were selected and compared against two conventional services (i.e. family-based healthcare and assisted living facility), in terms of their effectiveness, safety and patient perspectives. An AHP questionnaire was structured and data was collected and analysed from a group of 12 experts in dementia, who had previously agreed to participate in this study. The results indicate the potential of IoT technologies. However, the importance of conventional dementia care services is still highly appreciated. The design and development of IoT-based services for dementia patients should take into consideration the fact that cognitive dysfunction is an obstacle for using new technologies, thus further development is necessary and new functionality need to be implement for the IoT to be competitive.