Aging Friendly Technology For Health And Independence

We are living in a world full of innovations for the elderly and people with special needs to use smart assistive technologies and smart homes to more easily perform activities of daily living, to continue in social participation, to engage in entertainment and leisure activities, and to enjoy living independently. These innovations are inspired by new technologies leveraging all aspects of ambient and pervasive intel- gence with related theories, technologies, methods, applications, and services on ub- uitous, pervasive, AmI, universal, mobile, embedded, wearable, augmented, invisible, hidden, context-aware, calm, amorphous, sentient, proactive, post–PC, everyday, autonomic computing from the engineering, business and organizational perspectives. In the field of smart homes and health telematics, significant research is underway to enable aging and disabled people to use smart assistive technologies and smart homes to foster independent living and to offer them an enhanced quality of life. A smart home is a vision of the future where computers and computing devices will be available naturally and unobtrusively anywhere, anytime, and by different means in our daily living, working, learning, business, and infotainment environments. Such a vision opens tremendous opportunities for numerous novel services/applications that are more immersive, more intelligent, and more interactive in both real and cyber spaces.

This book looks at how AgeTech can support the autonomy and independence of people as they grow older. The authors challenge readers to reflect on the concepts of autonomy and independence not as absolutes but as experiences situated within older adults’ social connections and environments. Eleven personas of people around the world provide the context for readers to consider the influence of culture and values on how we understand autonomy and independence and the potential role of technology-based supports. The global pandemic provides a backdrop for the unprecedentedly rapid adoption of AgeTech, such as information and communication technologies or mobile applications that benefit older adults. Each persona in the book demonstrates the opportunity for AgeTech to facilitate autonomy and independence in supporting one’s identity, decision making, advance care planning, self care, health management, economic and social participation, enjoyment and self fulfillment and mobility in the community. The book features AgeTech from around the world to provide examples of commercially available products as well as research and development within the field. Despite the promise of AgeTech, the book highlights the “digital divide,” where some older people experience inadequate access to technology due to their geographic location, socio-economic status, and age. This book is accessible and relevant to everyday readers. Older adults will recognize themselves or peers in the personas and may glean insight from the solutions. Care partners and service providers will identify with the challenges of the personas. AgeTech entrepreneurs, especially “seniorpreneurs,” will appreciate that their endeavours represent a growing trend. Researchers will be reminded that the most important research questions are those that will enhance the quality of life of older adults and their sense of autonomy and independence, or relational autonomy and interdependence.

Assistive technologies for the old and people with disabilities is now a very active field of research. It also constitutes a very profitable market (expected to reach US $60 billion p.a. by 2018). The book covers key aspects of this important field and provides guidelines for developing assistive technologies in smart environments. The book also presents the new paradigm of open innovation used by the most prolific research teams around the world. The latest developments in the field are given. Overall this book will be a reference for researchers, practitioners and engineers.

There is a changed emphasis in many health services, with conventional pressures such as budget and workforce constraints, combined with the indirect forces of social change and strategic direction, bringing about the need for more flexible approaches for the longer term. By enabling different care models and delivery channels, telehealth offers demonstrably effective and sustainable solutions for issues such as access to and quality of care. This book presents 18 papers delivered at the 5th Global Telehealth Conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand, in November 2016. The theme chosen for Global Telehealth 2016 is 'The Promise of New Technologies in an Age of New Health Challenges', and the papers included here cover a wide variety of topics, from theoretical and abstract contributions through to discussions of practical projects and highly specific applied contributions. The book also includes two invited papers which detail recent contributions to two global issues in which telehealth plays a major role: universal health coverage and personal health monitoring. With papers ranging in scope from computer assisted screening technology for diabetic retinopathy to behavior change through computer games, this book will be of interest to all those involved in the design and provision of healthcare services.

Aging, Health and Technology takes a problem-centered approach to examine how older adults use technology for health. It examines the many ways in which technology is being used by older adults, focusing on challenges, solutions and perspectives of the older user. Using aging-health technology as a lens, the book examines issues of technology adoption, basic human factors, cognitive aging, mental health, aging and usability, privacy, trust and automation. Each chapter takes a case study approach to summarize lessons learned from unique examples that can be applied to similar projects, while also providing general information about older adults and technology. Discusses human factors design challenges specific to older adults Covers the wide range of health-related uses for technology—from fitness to leading a more engaged life Utilizes a case study approach for practical application Envisions what the future will hold for technology and older adults Employs a roster of interdisciplinary contributors

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council (NRC) have had prominent roles in discussions of aging, disability, and technology for decades. In 1978, Aging and Medical Education (IOM, 1978) raised national awareness of the challenges to physicians posed by the aging of the U.S. population. Thirty years later, Retooling for an Aging America highlighted concerns for the entire health care workforce in view of the aging of the population, including the role of technology in caring for older populations. The 1988 report The Aging Population in the 21st Century examined social, economic, and demographic changes among older adults, as well as many health-related topics: health promotion and disease prevention; quality of life; health care system financing and use; and the quality of care- especially long-term care. In 1991, the landmark report Disability in America laid out a national agenda to prevent disability and improve the lives of people with disabling conditions. The 1997 report Enabling America: Assessing the Role of Rehabilitation Science and Engineering examined the knowledge base of rehabilitation science and engineering and proposed ways to translate scientific findings into interventions that produce better health. And the 2007 report The Future of Disability in America examined progress made since the earlier reports and looked at continuing barriers that limit the independence, productivity, and participation in community life of people with disabilities. All these reports were produced by committees appointed in accordance with guidelines of the National Academies and met multiples times to compile and review evidence, reach consensus on conclusions and recommendations, draft a report of the committee, and then modify that draft report in response to comments from outside reviewers. The IOM and NRC have also held several workshops related to aging, disability, and technology and published summary reports, such as Technology for Adaptive Aging and Grand Challenges of Our Aging Society. The IOM and NRC also convene groups that take a different approach to issues of pressing national and international importance. Often known as forums or roundtables, these groups meet regularly to foster dialogue and confront issues of mutual interest and concern among a broad range of stakeholders. They can convene workshops, initiate cooperative projects among members, commission independently authored articles, and generate ideas for independent consensus studies. In 2012 the IOM and NRC joined together to establish the Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence to provide a neutral venue for broad-ranging discussions among the many stakeholders involved with aging and disability. The goals of the forum are to highlight areas in which the coordination of the aging and disability networks is strong, examine the challenges involved in aligning the aging and disability networks, explore new approaches for resolving problem areas, elevate the visibility and broaden the perspectives of stakeholders, and set the stage for future policy actions. Forum sponsors and members include federal agencies, health professional associations, private sector businesses, academics, and consumers. Fostering Independence, Participation, and Healthy Aging Through Technology summarizes this workshop.

Healthcare systems around the world are going through immense changes as innovative approaches to healthcare delivery are adopted to reduce cost and improve quality of care. Health informatics professionals are increasingly required to support these changes, and innovation, learning from experience and sharing ideas are essential to delivering the promises of e-health. This book presents the proceedings of the 21st Australian National Health Informatics Conference (HIC 2013), held in Adelaide, Australia in July 2013. The theme of HIC 2013 is ‘Digital Health Service Delivery – the Future is Now!’, emphasising the urgency of the need to embrace and advance the field of health informatics. The 28 papers in this volume examine and discuss directions, successes and other factors which need to be considered by all those involved in developing or implementing new health informatics systems. They present a wide diversity of work ranging from deeply theoretical to intensely practical, and represent experiences not only from Australasia, but also from many other parts of the world. Topics covered include: the design of viable and sustainable telehealth services, building an educated health informatics workforce, how to prepare health professionals for e-health as a life long learning process, improving the cancer patient journey, designing a diabetes mobile application with social network support, as well as many others. This book will be of interest to all those involved in the current and future provision of healthcare services.

This book is a collection of extended chapters from the selected papers that were published in the proceedings of Science and Information (SAI) Conference 2015. It contains twenty-one chapters in the field of Computational Intelligence, which received highly recommended feedback during SAI Conference 2015 review process. During the three-day event 260 scientists, technology developers, young researcher including PhD students, and industrial practitioners from 56 countries have engaged intensively in presentations, demonstrations, open panel sessions and informal discussions.