'Telehealth program promotes older-adult health and well-being by Marilynn Larkin, MA

In 2013, while working with MetLife's Mature Market Institute as assistant vice-president and director of Gerontology and Research, John Migliaccio, PhD, consulted informally for Westchester County, New York, laying the groundwork for what would become the Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors (TIPS). When MetLife decided to close the Institute, Migliaccio was hired by the County to help put the TIPS proposal together. And he was later named project director once the program started. "There was no program like [TIPS] in existence, which was part of the challenge and the excitement," Migliaccio recalls of those early days. "We knew we wanted to deliver health services to older adults in need, but we had to create all the policies, procedures, and operational protocols from scratch, and they had to be continually expanded and updated." Simply put, TIPS provides remote patient monitoring of vital signs as a preventive strategy to enable adults ages 60+ to remain in the community. The program also offers a range of "wraparound services" .... The Journal on Active Aging recently talked to Migliaccio to learn more about TIPS, the benefits to participants, and the outcomes achieved.