Introduction: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have gained an increasing relevance for delivering innovative care and support services for dependent older people and their family caregivers. Although ICT-based interventions can vary remarkably in terms of functions, target users, operational aspects and technologies used, little knowledge is available concerning their implementationand impact in Europe, a gap that the CARICT project (http://is.jrc.es/pages/EAP/eInclusion/carers.html) has tried to fill.

Method: 54 ICT-based interventions addressing needs of older peopleor their family caregivers have been identified in 12 European countries through internet search, literature review and expert interviews. Reports have been delivered for each case studied, and cross-analysed to better understand their potential impact at micro, meso and macro level.

Results: Little evidence was found for positive outcomes at micro-level, including improvements in users’ health relatedquality of life and social inclusion. At meso-level, implementation of 1st/2nd generation telecare contributes to reduce hospitalization and institutionalization rates of older users, as well asto cost savings for local care providers. At macro-level, only one intervention shows concrete effects on a larger scale through a targeted program evaluation, while most ICT-based interventions do not useany tool to assess their impact, and can thus demonstrate only technology acceptance or users’ satisfaction.

Conclusion: The lack of relevant evidence at all levels, as well as difficulties in comparing and generalising results, strongly urge practitioners to improve impact assessment methodologies and researchers to develop a better general framework of ICT potentials at a conceptual, theoretical and methodological level in this area.