Remote digital care and monitoring of frail seniors recommended to help slow functional decline

Spanish expert on frailty says technology detects minor changes before they become major problems

Although geriatricians are increasingly using digital technology to remotely monitor and care for older adults, greater use of those devices is needed specifically for seniors who are frail or at risk of becoming frail, says a Spanish expert on frailty and healthy aging.

“Frailty and pre-frailty are the most relevant stages of life when we should be detecting functional decline and then intervening,” Professor Leocadio Rodriguez Mañas, Head of Geriatrics at the Getafe University Hospital in Madrid, explained during a presentation at the JGH on October 6.

“If we wait too long, we will be too late to do anything of real value for our patients,” added Prof. Rodriguez Mañas, who is Scientific Director of the Spanish Centre for Biomedical Research on Frailty and Healthy Aging. He also has expertise in using digital technology to provide support to frail individuals.

His remarks were made at the annual Goldie Raymer Memorial Lecture, established by donor Susan Raymer in memory of her late mother. The event was organized by the JGH Division of Geriatric Medicine and the Simone & Edouard Schouela RUISSS McGill Centre of Excellence for the Sustainable Health of Seniors, commonly known as Schouela CEDurable.

Prof. Rodriguez Mañas said 10 years of research at his hospital has resulted in the development of a system that includes the voluntary installation of sensors in the homes of frail individuals.

This enables healthcare professionals to review the patient’s condition in real time and determine whether modifications are needed to the patient’s personalized plans for exercise, nutrition or medication.

Such a system also enhances communication—digitally or over the telephone—among the frail older person, the primary care physician and the hospital’s care team. The goal, he said, is to spot small changes in the patient’s mood, cognition and function before they develop into serious problems that exacerbate the frailty.

According to Dr. Ruby Friedman, Chief of the Division of Geriatrics at the JGH, he and his team are “looking forward to collaborating with Prof. Rodriguez Mañas on implementing these technologies in the care of our patients.”

Referring to a study that he and his team published in October 2024, Prof. Rodriguez Mañas said frail patients who used this type platform “improved their functional status and very significantly improved their frailty criteria,” which benefited not only the patient, but the caregiver.

He acknowledged that while it is impossible to completely halt the decline in a frail patient’s condition and abilities, the rate can be slowed, enabling the patient “to enjoy life in a full way, an independent way.”

He recalled that when he was in medical school, his teachers used to say that his goal was to save lives by helping his patients avoid death.

“It’s true that after 40 years of practicing medicine, I remember three or four patients whose lives I did save. But what I have mostly accomplished is to improve the quality of the lives that my other patients were able to live every day.”