“The missing link”: utility of brain health dashboards in supporting healthy ageing in primary care

Background: As populations age, policymakers and researchers are investigating innovative systems to support healthy brain ageing and prevent dementia to reduce the personal, community and fiscal burden of age-related disease. Primary care is a routinely accessed part of global healthcare systems and could act as an avenue to introduce platforms to support healthy ageing. However, research suggests that many primary care professionals feel underprepared, lack confidence, knowledge, and resources for age-related practice. This exploratory study aims to explore the current state of healthy brain ageing management in primary care and investigate how digital technologies, particularly brain health dashboards, could be implemented and used to increase clinician and patient outcomes. Methods: Healthcare professionals (N = 9) with a range of primary healthcare expertise (general practice, specialist, nursing, health promotion and health administration) were interviewed on current practices used to support healthy ageing in older adults and use of digital technologies for brain health management. Semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically. Results: Three core themes were identified: current management practices, facilitators and barriers to adoption and general acceptability. Core facilitators such as IT prevalence and clinician openness and barriers, including resource allocation, technological issues, breakdown of clinician-patient rapport and skills acquisition necessary for usage were identified by the healthcare professionals. Conclusions: This study provides initial findings on the barriers and facilitators to adopting technologies for brain health management in primary care, which could be used to create systems to support clinicians’ management of brain ageing and improve patient outcomes. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.