Highlights of the June 2008 Conference:
“Supportive Technology and Design for Healthy Aging”
Date: June 25-26, 2008
Location: Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA, (on Columbia Gorge, near Portland)
www.skamania.com
The Institute on Aging’s third annual conference on “Supportive Technology and Design for Healthy Aging” was held at Skamania Lodge on June 25-26, 2008. Skamania Lodge, located above the beautiful Columbia Gorge, was chosen as this year’s conference venue because it followed the annual meeting of the Washington Association of Homes & Services for the Aging (WAHSA) at this site. WAHSA, the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology at OHSU, Intel, and Mithun were co-sponsors of this year’s conference.
In addition to hearing from leaders in the field of technology and design for aging, conference participants heard from poster presenters about innovative projects in this growing field, viewed an exhibit of prize-winning designs from the American Institute of Architects’ Design for Aging competition, and networked with colleagues from across the U.S. and Canada who shared their interest in improving the environments of older adults.
Eric Dishman, Intel Fellow and Global Director of Product Research and Innovation at Intel, kicked off the conference by exhorting participants to share data and research findings in order to move the field forward, and to focus on prevention-driven proactive monitoring aimed at keeping elders healthy and independent.
Lydia Lundberg, co-founder of Elite Care homes for older adults, provided examples of how pervasive but unobtrusive monitoring can give elders with dementia maximum freedom to explore their environment within a safe and secure setting. Families of Elite Care residents remain involved in their elder’s activities and well-being through a computer-based “family portal.” These technological innovations by Lydia and her husband, Bill Reed, have resulted in several national and international awards for Elite Care.
Innovation was also the theme of a presentation by Victor Regnier, Professor of Architecture and Gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC). Professor Regnier focused on architectural design that combines housing and services for older residents. He illustrated the importance of smaller scale housing with several projects in Northern Europe that allow their elderly residents more privacy, control, and choice than the typical congregate housing model in the U.S.
The exciting potential for personalized robots to help elders age in place was illustrated by Maja Mataric, Professor of Computer Science at USC, and by Jim Osborn, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Quality of Life Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Mataric described research on “socially assistive robots” that are designed not to replace caregivers but to provide personalized assistance, motivation, and companionship to older adults suffering from physical impairments, stroke, and dementia. Dr. Osborn provided a glimpse into the many projects being conducted by his Center, including the “virtual coach,” the “active home,” “safe driving,” and “personal mobility” areas of engineered systems, and how these are being tested in real-world settings.
Tracy Zitzelberger, Administrative Director of the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology (ORCATech) at OHSU, described several innovative ORCATech projects that use home-based technologies to help older adults in the community maintain their independence after they have experienced loss of mobility and decline in cognitive functioning.
An important example of university-retirement community collaboration was presented by Jeffrey Los, a Principal with Ankrom-Moisan Architects in Portland. He is the Principal-in- charge of Mirabella Portland, a 30-story urban CCRC that is being built with innovative technology to monitor residents’ activities and mobility, and allows new technology to be incorporated as it becomes available in coming years. ORCATech at OHSU is affiliated with the developers of Mirabella to put into place an active research program, assistive devices, and caregiver communication systems that can track the health and activity patterns of Mirabella residents over time.
The concept of “smart homes,” though not exclusively aimed at older adults, has great potential for helping this population remain independent and safe in their own homes. Research on smart homes was described by Jonathan Cluts, director of the Strategic Prototyping Group at Microsoft, and by Diane Cook, Chair and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University (WSU). Mr. Cluts presented the prototype smart home designed and built on the Microsoft campus, with individual and family needs in mind across the lifespan. Professor Cook described research being conducted at WSU on “smart environments” for homes, offices, hospitals and other settings, where artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions are aimed at promoting functional independence for older adults.
A “technology panel” of three speakers described several cutting-edge projects being developed and tested at their companies. Devin Williams, CEO and co-founder of Spry Learning in Oregon, presented a gaming platform designed by her company to detect cognitive changes over time. The nine games that make up this program have been tested with community-dwelling elders. Richard Levinson, Founder and President of Attention Control Systems in California, described his research with university collaborators on PEAT, a handheld cognitive aid for users with executive function impairment caused by a stroke, brain injury, or Alzheimer’s disease. PEAT is designed to cue users on their activities with personalized voice recordings, digital photos, and links to relevant names and notes. Matthai Philipose, Senior Researcher at Intel Labs in Seattle, reviewed an experimental program on remote monitoring using in-home sensors for frail elders. This project, labeled “technology for long-term care” (TLC), aims to reduce caregivers’ perceived burden of caring for frail elders.
Susan Walker is founder of Smart Silvers Alliance, whose mission is to foster technology applications that can help older adults live independently. Her company reviews and supports low cost technologies available on the market that can help older adults safely negotiate their activities of daily living, including medication management.
The final speaker at this year’s conference was Stephen Roop, President of Beacon Hill Village in Boston. He described the evolution and success of the first membership organization to support best practices for assisting elders who choose to remain in their own homes and make use of available services and programs. Beacon Hill Village has spawned other membership-based community housing programs in Palo Alto, New York, and rural Fairfax County, Virginia, demonstrating that the concept of a “virtual CCRC” can be applied in both dense urban communities and in more distant rural areas.
The uniformly positive evaluations of the June 2008 conference and the diverse speakers on technology and design for aging reinforced the planning committee’s decision to continue this annual tradition. Mark your calendars for the “Fourth Annual Conference on Technology and Design for Healthy Aging,” scheduled for May 28 at the Doubletree Hotel, near Sea-Tac Airport. As more information becomes available, we will post it on the Institute on Aging website: www.depts.washington.edu/geron/
Slideshow Presentations from Conference
- Susan Cook : Smart Environments: Support for Automatic
Health Monitoring and
Intervention
- Richard Levinson : Integrating, Cueing and Sensing in a Portable Device
- Jeffrey Los : Technology for Aging in Place
- Lydia Lundberg : The Future of Elder Care
- Steve Roop : Aging in Community: The Beacon Hill Village Model in Boston
- Tracy Zitzelberger : Technology and the Aging Brain: New Approaches to Understanding Change
Conference Sponsors:
- UW Institute on Aging
- Washington Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (WAHSA)
- Mithun
