Behavioral Sensing and Care Technology in Dementia Facilities: An Analytical Review of Implementation Barriers, Enablers, and Organizational Implications

Abstract

The integration of behavioral sensing and care technology in dementia care facilities represents a growing operational and strategic priority for care system managers, health system planners, and policymakers confronting the escalating global burden of dementia. Despite substantial and increasing investment in sensing technologies — including motion detection, wearable biosensors, ambient acoustic monitoring, and integrated smart environment platforms — the gap between technology deployment and effective operational integration remains wide, persistent, and insufficiently understood from an organizational and systems analytics perspective (Pappadà et al., 2021). This paper presents an integrative analytical review of the scholarly literature on behavioral sensing and care technology integration in dementia care facilities, organized across five thematic domains: functional architecture and care-relevant capabilities of sensing systems; technology adoption frameworks and evidence patterns in care facility settings; caregiver workflow integration and human factors in technology deployment; organizational readiness, governance, and institutional enablers; and care quality outcomes and decision support implications. The synthesis develops an analytical framework organized around four interdependent implementation dimensions — implementation readiness, workflow alignment, governance and data utilization, and outcome realization — and identifies the conditions under which technology deployment produces sustained operational value and decision-relevant intelligence for care system managers. Principal findings establish that technology integration failure is predominantly organizational rather than technical in origin; that the gap between deployment and deep integration is the most consequential diagnostic distinction in the implementation landscape; and that the decision support function of sensing data — its translation into improved care planning and clinical governance — represents the primary unrealized potential of current technology investment in the dementia care sector. Structured recommendations are advanced for care facility management, health system policy, and future empirical research. The paper is addressed to the health systems and organizational analytics community and contributes a consolidated, decision-relevant framework for understanding and improving technology integration in dementia care contexts.