The growing older adult population faces unprecedented health challenges. Home and community-based technologies have proven to be an effective way of helping older adults improve health outcomes and maintain independence. However, such technologies are currently not widely used by older adults for health purposes. Nor have they been widely adopted by the providers serving older adults; to date, successful health technology diffusion has occurred mainly within capitated and integrated health systems, such as the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Kaiser Permanente (KP). This article presents a conceptual model of technology diffusion, ADOPT (Accelerating Diffusion of Proven Technologies), which discusses important considerations for diffusing health technologies in home and community-based settings for older adults. At the center of the ADOPT model is a framework that highlights factors that affect technology adoption and use relevant to older adults, their collaborators, and their context. The model then overlays seven important "diffusion strategies" that older adults' collaborators (including technology companies, aging services organizations, formal/informal caregivers, family members, medical providers, insurance companies, and others) can undertake to help facilitate technology diffusion. The goal of this article is to introduce the ADOPT model to guide older adults' collaborators in achieving greater technology diffusion, in order to create widespread health outcome improvements and promote independent living for this population.

The global population of older adults is rapidly growing. Worldwide, the percentage of the population over age 65 is expected to rise from 7% percent in 2008 to 14% by 2040; by 2040, 72 countries will have more than 2 million people over age 65 (Kinsella and He 2009). With this population growth will come a significant increase in the level of chronic illness. In the United States alone, approximately 80% of people over 65 have one chronic condition, while 50% of these older adults have at least two chronic conditions. As a result, approximately 75% of the over $2.2 trillion U.S. health care spending in 2007 was related to care for persons with chronic conditions (Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease 2009). Treating chronic illness among older adults is an international issue; the numerous challenges to providing high-quality, coordinated, and accessible care to older persons with chronic conditions are universal. Compounding the issues associated with the delivery of chronic care, most countries are facing shortages in their long-term care workforce, increased economic and social pressures on informal caregivers, and the desire of older adults to remain in their homes and communities.As we advance into the second decade of the twenty-first century, technology has emerged as one of the solutions that providers throughout the world are turning to in order to address the health challenges of older adults. This special double issue of Aging International explores how technology can improve the health and independence of older adults with an emphasis on the diffusion and scalability of technology. To date, numerous technologies including telehealth, remote patient monitoring, medication optimization, and electronic health records have demonstrated the capability to improve health outcomes for older adults. More recently,

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