Designed Technologies for Healthy Aging identifies and presents a variety of contemporary technologies to support older adults’ abilities to perform everyday activities. Efforts of industry, laboratories, and learning institutions are documented under four major categories: social connections, independent self care, healthy home and active lifestyle. The book contains well-documented and illustrative recent examples of designed technologies—ranging from wearable devices, to mobile applications, to assistive robots— on the broad areas of design and computation, including industrial design, interaction design, graphic design, human-computer interaction, software engineering, and artificial intelligence.

This book examines some of the challenges associated with ageing in multi-cultural societies. We explore some of the major issues facing society in the area of 'healthy ageing' and propose a method of working with cross-disciplinary groups of health practitioners, designers, architects and cultural practitioners. Through case-studies of a series of workshops run in China and Singapore with Australian, Chinese and Singaporean students, we review the benefits of this approach and provide a framework for engaging designers, planners and health professionals in the process of creating new design solutions for the growing global ageing population.

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

Emerging and currently available technologies offer great promise for helping older adults, even those without serious disabilities, to live healthy, comfortable, and productive lives. What technologies offer the most potential benefit? What challenges must be overcome, what problems must be solved, for this promise to be fulfilled? How can federal agencies like the National Institute on Aging best use their resources to support the translation from laboratory findings to useful, marketable products and services? Technology for Adaptive Aging is the product of a workshop that brought together distinguished experts in aging research and in technology to discuss applications of technology to communication, education and learning, employment, health, living environments, and transportation for older adults. It includes all of the workshop papers and the report of the committee that organized the workshop. The committee report synthesizes and evaluates the points made in the workshop papers and recommends priorities for federal support of translational research in technology for older adults.

This book describes the multidisciplinary approach needed to tackle better aging. Aging populations are one of the 21st century’s biggest challenges. National health systems are forced to adapt in order to provide adequate and affordable care. Innovation, driven by digital technology, is a key to improving quality of life and encouraging healthy living. Well-designed technology keeps people empowered, independent, and mobile; however, despite widespread adoption of ICT in day-to-day life, digital health technologies have yet to catch on. To this end, technology needs to be effective, usable, cheap, and designed to ensure the security of the managed data. In the era of mHealth, mobile technology, and social design, this book describes, in six sections, the collaboration of polytechnic know-how and social science and health sectors in the creation of a system for encouraging people to engage in healthy behavior and achieve a better quality of life.

Technological innovation continues to be present in all areas of our lives, offering seemingly endless possibilities. As technology is increasingly implemented in healthcare applications, it is necessary to understand whether users respond to a predefined organizational strategy of model of care or whether they will become wholly dependent on the healthcare technology. This understanding is especially crucial when dealing with the possibility of generating inequities, especially with individuals that are elderly. Exploring the Role of ICTs in Healthy Aging is a collection of innovative research that proposes the detailed study of a strategic framework for the development of technological innovation in healthcare and for its adoption by health organizations. While highlighting topics including emotional health, quality of life, and telemedicine, this book is ideally designed for physicians, nurses, hospital staff, medical professionals, home care providers, hospital administrators, academicians, students, and researchers. Moreover, the book will provide insights and support executives concerned with the management of expertise, knowledge, information, and organizational development in different types of healthcare units at various levels.

Demographics reveal that the proportion of elderly individuals in the population is growing at a significant rate. Advances in medicine have allowed populations to live longer than ever; however, ensuring that these individuals have the tools necessary to sustain a productive and happy lifestyle as they age remains a concern. Optimizing Assistive Technologies for Aging Populations focuses on the development and improvement of devices intended to assist elderly individuals in coping with various physical limitations and disabilities. Highlighting the available tools and technologies for supporting the mobility, agility, and self-sufficiency of the aging population as well as the challenges associated with the integration of these technologies into the everyday lives of elderly individuals, this publication is ideally designed for reference use by healthcare workers, medical students, gerontologists, and IT developers in the field of medicine.