CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

The International Society for Gerontechnology invites you to submit an abstract for the 7th World Conference which will take place in Vancouver Canada May 27-30, 2010. Presentation options include symposia, free papers, and posters. Accepted abstracts will be published in Gerontechnology , the official journal of the society. The deadline for submission of abstracts is January 15th, 2010.

To submit online or for more information visit www.sfu.ca/isg2010

The AALIANCE initiative – “The European Ambient Assisted Living Innovation Alliance” - aims to coordinate the European AAL R&D community and to develop a common strategic vision for short-, mid- and long-term R&D approaches in the AAL context. An important step towards this aim is the release of the Ambient Assisted Living Roadmap for research and innovation which the project consortium has now published on its website.

This initiative is part of the EU action plan for Ageing Well in the Information Society which aims to provide new solutions to help Europe tackle the challenges of the ageing population.

The full document of 120 pages (including a foreword from Florin Lupescu, Director of Directorate ICT addressing Societal Challenges in DG Information Society and Media of the European Commission) provides an in-depth look into the future of AAL application areas, concepts and technologies until 2025. The first part of the roadmap describes the main trends for AAL, analyzed from demographical, economical and technological points of view. Furthermore, existing barriers for deployment of AAL are explained in the document/roadmap. Starting from the identification of potential needs of elderly people for living independently in different contexts, the field of AAL is grouped in three principal application domains:

Ageing at home and on the move (AAL4persons)
Ageing in society,
Ageing at work.
In the second part of the Roadmap, these application domains, potential applications and services and use cases are examined.

The third part of the document focuses on the underlying technologies, on which applications and functionalities of the previous domains are based. They are grouped in five basic groups:

Sensing
Reasoning
Acting
Communication
Interaction
In the final chapters an outlook on questions of system integration and interoperability (i.e. ways to compose an AAL system) is given.

The full Roadmap document is available now on the AALIANCE website.

AALIANCE Ambient Assisted Living Roadmap, August 2009
Download: http://www.aaliance.eu/public/documents/aaliance-roadmap/ "

To advocate for and advance the ageing research agenda by identifying, coordinating, stimulating, and communicating strategic research on ageing and older people as a means to improve the lives of older people in Ireland (North and South) especially those who are disadvantaged. [ Read More ]

Lisa Vizer and colleagues at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, say the first signs of age-related cognitive problems, or a degenerative condition like Alzheimer's, might be detectable using software that monitors telltale variations in an individual's typing patterns. The researchers say that warnings of a possible cognitive dysfunction could improve diagnosis and treatments in time to minimise or delay serious impairment (International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.07.005)."

Summary Points

* eHealth interventions will play a substantial role in shaping health care systems in the 21st century.
* Until eHealth interventions are “fit for purpose”, health care professionals are unlikely to adopt them and this risks implementation failure.
* eHealth developments should be viewed as interventions, and evaluated as new drugs or management programmes, recognising the challenges of evaluating complex interventions.
* We propose a means to evaluate eHealth interventions while they are being designed, developed, and deployed.
* We argue that continuous systematic evaluations of eHealth interventions are needed.

[ Read More ]

Who attends?
The conference brings together people who design, develop, prescribe, research, set policy for and use technology to enhance the health, functional capacity and quality of life of older adults. These include engineers, architects, ICT experts, computer scientists, gerontologists, health care providers, social service professionals, leisure and recreation specialists, planners, housing developers and managers, as well as people responsible for purchasing decisions in aging-related industries such as assisted living, care facilities and hospitals. [ More ]

A bill came before the UK parliament on July 8th 2009 to deal with a particular aspect of pets in their society. The Care Homes (Domestic Pets) Bill, tabled by Dr Nick Palmer MP, sought to clarify regulations in relation to “pets policy” in care homes. The bill aims to require sheltered complex and home managers to accept animals unless there is a specific reason why a particular animal would be unsuitable. This is an interesting issue we have seen in our Wiki and roadmap development in CAPSIL and will become more and more of an issue as time goes by. [ Read More ]

Following the successful launch of the awards in 2008, we are pleased to inform you that the ACCESS-IT initiative is now open for a second year.

The ACCESS-IT Awards are encouraging nominations of activities that promote a better quality of life for people with disabilities and the elderly, through the use of Information Technology (IT).

This year, we anticipate even more nominations than in 2008. Last year’s Finalists and Winners have exploited fruitfully their award with the support of the ACCESS-IT team as a great marketing and PR opportunity. However, the most important benefit is that a wide range of people with disabilities and elderly and their communities (carers, family, rehabilitation experts, SEN professionals, AT experts, etc) from all around Europe learn about the finalists and how they can use the products and services.

This year, we have launched four special awards:
ACCESS-IT@Home: This award will recognise an ICT based project, product or service that advances independent living for people with disabilities or elderly.

ACCESS-IT @Work: This award will recognise an ICT based project, product or service that facilitates people with a disability to work independently.

ACCESS-IT@Learning: This award will recognise an ICT based project, product or service that facilitates people with a disability or the elderly to get educated in an affordable, accessible, usable and efficient manner.

ACCESS-IT@Web2.0: This award will recognise a project, product or service that advances accessibility on web 2.0

[ Read More ]

May 27 – 30, 2010
Vancouver, Canada
Marriott Pinnacle Hotel

"Internationally recognized experts in gerontechology will share their knowledge and experience through lectures, symposia, workshops, papers and posters. Topics to be addressed will include rehabilitation engineering, robotics, telemonitoring, telecare, ICT, biomechanics and ergonomics, assistive technology, inclusive design and usability, smart homes and smart fabrics, sensor technology, and cognitive aging and computer games.

In addition to a strong scientific program the Conference will feature an exhibition and trade show, an exciting social program, and pre- and post-conference special interest events."

The intensive, week-long boot camp on aging issues is run by the New York office of the non-profit International Longevity Center, and about 175 journalists have learned about the wide-ranging implications of an aging society since the program's founding in 2000.

In Canada, more than 10 million people — nearly one-third of the population - are over age 50, and one in seven is 65 or older.

Click through the photos to see the 20 surprising facts about aging gleaned from this year's academy workshop"

[ More ]

Assistive Technology (AT) R&D News, a free new monthly newsletter from FAST with the latest on Research and Development in the AT field. The aim is to help researchers stay up to date with significant national developments, local initiatives and research projects relevant to the AT community. There are also regular updates on sources of funding, AT jobs, conferences and opportunities to share knowledge about the AT sector. To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the newsletter, or to suggest items for inclusion, email: researchnews@fastuk.org.]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:21:50 +0100 assistive-technology-newsletter-on-independence-fo If 80 is the new 60, and 50 is the new 30, I’m a teenager again, looking forward to a bright future at university. I certainly had a thought-provoking tutorial recently at the hands of UBS’s professorial George Magnus, one of the prophets of the credit crunch but also the author of a book about demographics, The Age of Aging.

The statistics about an ageing population are starting to become familiar: people are living longer and having fewer children, and this is true not only in rich countries but much of the developing world. But the implications are often misinterpreted. An ageing society is not, primarily, a demographic crisis. The problem is a failure to adapt – a failure that afflicts politics, management and society. [ Read More ]

An article written by Tim Harford on the 30th May, 2009.
Published on Undercover Economist.

http://www.netcarity.org
http://www.eldergames.eu

[ Read More ]

[ Read More ]

As the average lifespan among human beings increases, the market of healthcare for elders in digital home also concentrates more attention. Techniques for healthcare in digital home are widely discussed recently. Some successful key factors are IT techniques integration and innovative services modeling. Furthermore, interactive multimedia for elders will come from various networks and devices. Which will they prefer to use? In this special track, we seek techniques for promoting healthcare in digital home. The scope of this special track includes, but not limited to, the following topics:

Wireless Sensor Network enabled healthcare applications
Healthcare Services in digital home
Applicable / Reasonable services for elders
Smart Multimedia devices in digital home
Home devices integration, control or monitor
Middleware development for healthcare
Bio-signals mining and emergency alerting
Agent-based approaches to care elders in digital home
Security and privacy of personal data in digital home
Personal information management (PIM)
Smart personal information filter (PIF)
Information exchange between service platforms
Smart remote diagnosis technology
Heuristic optimization engine and applications

[ Read More ]

"Japan, like many countries around the world, is facing a serious shortage of caregivers to look after its rapidly growing elderly population. Unlike others, however, it is about to create an army of robot nurses.

The Japanese government announced Wednesday that it hopes to have both the robot nurses and the safety guidelines for their use in place within five years, according to news reports. Officials at the ministry of trade and industry said a new agency, the Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, has been created to improve safety standards for robots over the next five years. Japan currently produces 70% of the world's industrial robots, according to an AFP report. "

...
This paper briefly introduces the systems of social care provision in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, all of which operate on the basis of personal budgets. The systems differ in the details, but are linked by the common principles of user choice and control to which the UK currently aspires." [ Read More ]

International Society for Gerontechnology
7th World Conference
May 27-30, 2010
Vancouver, Canada
Marriott Pinnacle Hotel

For more information visit the website : www.sfu.ca/isg2010

"When it comes to listening to music on iPods, blogging, downloading podcasts, joining Facebook, and using Twitter, the over-35 crowd is adopting everything from social media to consumer electronics at a faster rate than their Generation Y (ages 18 to 24) counterparts. These figures challenge some deeply held stereotypes about technology and age. Kumu Puri, Accenture's lead executive for the Consumer Technology industry group, says are behind this generational shift: 1) many boomers are expecting to have to work later in their lives, and so want to make sure their digital skills remain relevant, 2) some are simply turning to some of these gadgets and services as a way to stay in touch with their younger generation of kids and grandkids, and 3) boomers have more disposable income to pony up for the latest gadget."

[ Read More ]

The agenda included meetings and presentations from groups including:

1 Delegation of the European Commission in Washington DC,
2 Head of Sector ICT & Ageing, Information Society & Media D-G,
3 Office of Science Policy, National Institutes of Health,
4 International Research Activities and Legislative Officer, National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health,
5 Office of Europe and Eurasia, Office of Global Health Affairs,
6 Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health,
7 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Office of the National Coordinator for HIT (ONC),
8 Department of Health and Human Services,Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships,
9 Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy,
10 Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation,
11 Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation (CPIRF) Scientific Advisory Council,
12 US Department of Veterans Affairs,
13 Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST),
14 American Telemedicine Association,
15 President of the European Research Council,
16 Office of International Science and Engineering, National Science Foundation,
17 Biomedical Engineering Program, National Science Foundation,
18 Computer and Network Systems Division, Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, National Science Foundation,
19 Integrative, Hybrid and Complex Systems Program, National Science Foundation,
20 National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health.

Message from Paolo Bonato our host for this event.

"A few months ago, I was asked to organize a meeting in Washington DC with the objective of discussing potential future projects involving the European Commission, US Federal Agencies, and other US Institutions. I took on the task with a great deal of enthusiasm as I believe that we are moving toward a time when research will be an international endeavor rather than just a “national business”. I foresee that international research portfolios will grow over the next decade with great benefit to the quality of research outcomes and a more efficient and effective spending of resources (including taxpayers’ money). The context in which the meeting was originated is an example of the growing number of international research initiatives we witness these days.

In fact, the meeting is part of the activities carried out within CAPSIL http://www.capsil.org/, a project supported by the European Commission to assess how technology can facilitate independent living in the aging population. The project involves researchers not just from EU Member States but also from the US and Japan. Besides, the focus of the meeting is on Healthy Aging and Independent Living, not just a EU problem or a US problem but a global problem that requires that we come together as citizens of the global village to effectively address the issue. I sincerely hope that the meeting will provide concrete opportunities to develop joint EU/US programs to promote Healthy Aging and Independent Living.

I am grateful to a number of individuals who helped organizing this meeting. A special thanks goes to Louis Quatrano, who encouraged me to hold the meeting at NICHD and facilitated a great deal the organization of the event. Rusti Queen was essential in dealing with the logistics of the event. I am very grateful for her help. Thanks also to Marya Levintova and Bob Jaeger, who helped me identifying individuals who could contribute to the meeting. The event moved to a different level when Laurent Bochereau stepped on board and got the EC Delegation in Washington DC involved in the initiative. Thank you, Laurent. An important contribution was also provided by Izabella Zandberg, who provided
the opportunity to post the material of the meeting on EURAXESS website http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/.

I am very grateful to Zeynep Erim and Grace Peng for facilitating the involvement of NIBIB and to Semahat Demir for getting NSF on board. The material for the meeting would have not been ready without Sara Midwood’s contribution. She stayed on top of things throughout the entire period of organization of the meeting. Thank you, Sara. Thanks also to Elyse Lo Monaco who helped – as always – when we got to the “exciting” part of the process (i.e. the last few days before the meeting). A special recognition goes to Altug Akay, whose hard work was essential to finalize the preparation of the meeting material, and to Shyamal Patel, who prepared the electronic version of the documents in a format that could be provided to attendees on a flash drive and posted on the EURAXESS website. Thank you all - Paolo Banato"

The Everyday Technologies for Alzheimer Care (ETAC) initiative is a research funding effort established in 2003 by the Alzheimer’s Association and Intel Corporation. The consortium is committed to the development of new technologies that may compensate for functional impairments, enhance care and treatment strategies, foster independence, and improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers. The goal of the ETAC initiative is to fund more than $1 million of research to develop new models of Alzheimer care based upon current and evolving technologies in computing, communications and home health care.

To meet this goal, the consortium is seeking additional partners committed to building a national alliance of research and development experts from diverse disciplines including software engineering, medicine and business. [ Read More ]

The European Connected Health Leadership Summit is a unique opportunity for industry and research leaders to play a pivotal role in shaping the initiatives that will be at the heart of developing European market opportunities.

Building on annual Ministerial Declarations since 2003, EU Health policies now recognise the viewpoints of the Individual (including the changing roles of patients/citizens and healthcare professionals), of Society (including the accessibility and interoperability of new technologies) and of Economy - with a stronger recognition of the need to transform business models and deliver cost efficiency. [ Read More ]

The announcement was made Thursday (April 17) at a celebratory signing ceremony at the university's McKissick Museum.

The agreement is a giant step forward for the SeniorSMART™ Center of Economic Excellence (CoEE), which seeks to preserve the quality of life for older adults through technology and is a collaboration involving the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center and Palmetto Health. [ Read More ]

The CAPSIL consortium will be holding our 4th general assembly during this time along with further time devoted to roadmap development. Over the course of three days CAPSIL will host bilateral meetings between representatives from the EU with representatives from the US. Those from the EU include, members of CAPSIL, representatives of the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington DC, representatives of the European Commission, Information Society & Media D-G and representatives of the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme. Those from the US for example include, representatives of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), specifically the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Further meetings with the NSF and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering will happen during this three day period.

The goal for these bilateral meetings is to further understand the activities underway in each area focussed on independent living supported by technology and to strengthen the opportunities for EU and US researchers to collaborate. There are many funded and unfunded research and development programs in the EU, US and Japan and if the agencies can aid, rely and build on each others efforts then the collective efforts of not just one region but all can be brought to bear on the challenges in independent living.

Aging in America, the 2009 Annual Conference of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging takes place March 15-19 in Las Vegas. The ASA-NCOA Conference, with nearly 4,000 attendees, is recognized as a showcase for programs and projects that can be replicated, a forum for policy discussion and advocacy, and a prime source of information on new research findings in aging. It is the largest gathering of a diverse, multidisciplinary community of professionals from the fields of aging, healthcare and education, along with business leaders from across the United States.

Attendees come from around the country and abroad to find the answers, the experts, the research, the best practices, and the most comprehensive educational offerings available to professionals. It is the place to be if you want to learn about what’s new, what works, and how you can make it work to respond to the ever-growing demands of serving an aging population. The conference provides attendees with the opportunity to network with new and old friends, gain insight from voices from the front line and find new grassroots and national partners for advocacy.

"The whole objective is to enable people to stay at home as long as they can," says Bruce Carey-Smith, a BIME design engineer. The system reports the wealth of information it collects—from potential problems to successful interventions—to health care providers. "It's about supporting—not about replacing—the role of care staff," Carey-Smith says.

[ Read more ]

The bill for California's state retiree health and dental benefits stands at $48.2 billion – and the government's shortsighted payment plan is making the obligation far more costly than it needs to be, according to a new report.

Retired state workers who receive their health coverage through the California Public Employees' Retirement System will cost the state – and by extension, taxpayers – $3.7 billion for the 2008-09 fiscal year. [ Read More ]

It has a clear-cut commitment to tuning the balance between Ageing, Technology and the Emerging Knowledge-Based Society.

It reflects the broad categories of interest in this field: Health, Housing, Mobility, Communication, Leisure, and Work.

[ Read More ]

1. Profiles of Tunstall, AMDTelehealth, Docobo, Caregiver Technology and AT&T .
   
2. Also mentioned:- Yahoo, Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault.
   
3. The impact of a growing number of elderly people with IT skills.
   
4. Changing attitudes to 'ageing in place.'
   
5. When the elderly, rather than their children, purchase telehealth services.
   
6. The elderly and blood glucose monitoring case study.
   
7. Using Health 2.0 as a platform for telecare for the elderly.
   
8. Health 2.0 filling the gap in the electronic patient record system market.
   
9. Vendors are adapting to changes in the telecare market."
   

"Aging in America, the 2009 Annual Conference of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging takes place March 15-19 in Las Vegas. The ASA-NCOA Conference, with nearly 4,000 attendees, is recognized as a showcase for programs and projects that can be replicated, a forum for policy discussion and advocacy, and a prime source of information on new research findings in aging. It is the largest gathering of a diverse, multidisciplinary community of professionals from the fields of aging, healthcare and education, along with business leaders from across the United States."

Date of publication: 11 February 2009
Closure date: 5 May 2009, at 17:00, Central European Time (CET)
Indicative total funding: 60.9 Mio. € (this amount includes a contribution of up to 23 M€ by the European Commission.)

Summary call information on alliance.eu:

"Europe is facing severe demographic challenges from the ageing of its population. By 2020, one out of every four citizens will be more than 60 years old. Already most senior citizens are no longer employed. In the coming years, there will be fewer young people to support a growing number of older people, even as the costs of pensions, health and social care are expected to triple. Clearly, Europe needs to re-engage its senior citizens. The snag is that most of them are on the wrong side of the so-called digital divide: only 10 per cent of senior citizens use the Internet.

These are among the issues addressed by a new report which has now been posted on the SENIOR website at http://www.seniorproject.eu.

The Environmental Scanning report reviews 67 projects, supported by the European Commission under its Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes, dealing with information and communication technologies (ICT) aimed at improving the inclusion of senior citizens in mainstream society while respecting ethical principles and protection of personal data.

The report also summarises key points from more than 35 policy documents and numerous other studies. From this review of projects, policies and studies, the report identifies the key themes (or issues), clusters, junctures and gaps that should be taken into account in constructing a “roadmap”, the purpose of which is to set out the actions that should be taken to help overcome the digital divides that isolate senior citizens from mainstream European society.

SENIOR is a 24-month support action which aims to provide a systematic assessment of the social, ethical and privacy issues involved in ICT and Ageing, to understand what lessons should be learned from current technological trends, and to plan strategies for governing future trends. SENIOR is the acronym for Social Ethical and privacy Needs in ICT for Older people: a dialogue Roadmap. The co-ordinator of the project is Emilio Mordini, Director of the Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC), based in Rome. The consortium comprises eight partners from six European countries.

The 189-page report includes an executive summary. We would welcome your comments on this report and will acknowledge any comments received on the final page of the report before it is officially submitted to the European Commission."

"The biennial ICT Event (formerly called the "IST Event") is the most important forum for discussing research and public policy in information and communication technologies at European level. The Event brings together researchers and innovators, policy and business decision-makers working in the field of digital technologies." [ Read More ]

While this project is now underway they have already produced some interesting outputs, for example the proceedings of a workshop on lo-fi prototyping. This was produced at the Proceedings of the workshop on Guidelines for Haptic Lo-Fi prototyping held on the 19th of October 2008, NordiCHI 2008 in Lund, Sweden.

CAPSIL aims to support research groups interested in exploring such opportunities either by studying our roadmaps and gap analysis or by contacting the CAPSIL partners directly.

While many of Challenges outlined in this call touch on Independent Living, of particular note is the €73m of funding available under the "Challenge 7: ICT for Independent Living, Inclusion and Governance".

ICT for independent living, inclusion and participatory governance ensuring that all citizens can benefit from ICT and that ICT helps improve participation in public and active life.

A number of societal trends will deeply transform the future markets of ICT for independent living, inclusion and participation. Firstly, ageing is beginning to change the shape of labour markets and is already strongly influencing the needs for care and 'lifelong participation' in society. The ICT literacy of the above-65 age group will improve significantly in the next decade. This will create mass commodity markets for well-being products and services – and unlock markets for assistive technologies-, fuelled by an estimated EUR 3000 billion of wealth and revenues of the above-65 population.

Here is our brief synopsis of the 3 objectives in this challenge. (NOTE: "Independent Living" is broader than just this one challenge so we would encourage you to read the entire ICT WORK PROGRAMME 2009.

Objective ICT-2009.7.1 ICT & Ageing
This objective focuses on service robotics for ageing...

• Service robotics for ageing well - Funding under: STREP
  
• Open Systems Reference Architectures, Standards and ICT Platforms for Ageing Well - Funding under: IP
  
• RTD roadmaps and stakeholder coordination - Funding under: CSA
  

• Embedded Accessibility of Future ICT: Solutions for supporting developers in deeply embedding generalised accessibility support within future mainstream ICT-based products and services. - Funding under: IP, STREP
  
• ICT restoring and augmenting human capabilities compensating for people with reduced motor functions or disabilities - Funding under: STREP
  
• RTD research agendas & coordination of constituencies - Funding under: CSA (CA only)
  

• Governance and Participation Toolbox - Funding under STREP
  
• Policy Modelling, Simulation and Visualisation - Funding under STREP
  
• Roadmapping and Networking for 'participation, governance and policy modelling' - Funding under CSA
  

Speaker: Dr. Kay Connelly
Date & Time: 14th November, 1pm
Venue: CASL Seminar Room, Ground Floor, UCD CASL

Abstract:
In recent years, pervasive technologies for health, or Pervasive
Healthcare, has emerged as a vital discipline in its own right. Just as
Pervasive Computing has served as a focal point for merging deep
technical issues with human-centered approaches in order to integrate
technology into everyday settings, Pervasive Healthcare poses challenges
that are both technical and human. In this talk, I will describe some of
the Pervasive Healthcare projects at Indiana University, focusing on the
human element of applications designed not for the medical profession,
but for everyday people. Resulting applications range from one that
helps a chronically ill population manage their disease, to technologies
that help elders remain in their homes for longer. At the end, I will
introduce an exciting new initiative at Indiana University that involves
6 faculty members and investigates one of the most pressing problems
within the Pervasive Healthcare field.

Bio:
Dr. Kay Connelly's research focuses on user acceptance of ubiquitous and
mobile computing technologies where there is a delicate balance between
such factors as convenience, control and privacy. Dr. Connelly is
currently investigating three application domains: 1. convenience
applications such as automatically configuring a cell phone's
notification mechanism depending on the physical and social context of
the cell phone owner, 2. health care applications to empower both the
ill and the healthy to manage and improve their own health, and 3. work
and learning applications such as a tool to assist students in gathering
environmental data while simultaneously supporting data analysis in the
field.

Dr. Connelly is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science
Department at Indiana University where she leads the Security for
Ubiquitous Resources Group (SURG:www.cs.indiana.edu/surg) and co-
founded the Ethical Technologies in the Homes of Seniors lab (ETHOS:
ethos.indiana.edu). She is also the Associate Director ofIndiana
University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research.

Preliminary results from 2006-07 indicate that the ratio of older people to total population is higher in Europe than on any other continent. A clear North–South gradient in health and income was also found: Older persons in the North are better off financially and are in better health, but this does not translate into corresponding mortality differences.

Full results can be found at: http://www.shareproject.org/t3/share/fileadmin/press_information/SHARE_Press_Info_FINAL.pdf

- Dan Hartnett

1. To ensure that leaders across the sector, and their organisations, benefit from sharing knowledge and insights and can learn from good practice elsewhere.
   
2. To improve the quality of supports and services, making them more responsive to the known needs of older people.
   
3. To strengthen the capacity of the ageing sector to influence public policy.
   
4. To enable those working in the sector to inform the research agenda and benefit from its findings.
   

Importantly, the network is not an advocacy body, and does not take public positions or have a public profile. It also does not seek to forge agreements among members. However, it is hoped that as members are all in key decision making roles, participation in the discussions and exposure to broader perspectives, will ultimately help influence improvements in policy and services and inform the research agenda.
More information is available at: http://www.ageingwellnetwork.ie/

- Dan Hartnett

International Federation on Ageing
3-6 May 2010
Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
Melbourne,Australia

Over 78 million baby boomers are now approaching retirement age (the first boomer just applied for Social Security benefits). As a result, U.S. age demographics are shifting significantly. Seniors 65 and older will soon constitute 20 percent of the population. And it's estimated that by the year 2020, 12 million older Americans will need long-term care.

With this aging of our population, homecare is an ever-growing and multi-faceted industry. In fact, eldercare is fast becoming more of a growth industry than childcare. The infrastructure, however, is not yet in place to handle this coming age wave of American retirees.

The Olmstead Decision, passed by the Supreme Court in 1999, states that the elderly and disabled have the right to enjoy care in the least restrictive environment possible. To seniors, this means in their homes. But having the right and having access to resources are often two very different issues. To date, funding has not supported the Olmstead Act and lack of such has weakened its impact. It's extremely expensive to raise Medicaid payouts. For example, just a 2% reimbursement increase in Minnesota would equate to over $70 million. And the for-profit model of home care hasn't yet matured.

A 2006 study conducted by Ecumen, a non-profit provider of senior housing, concluded that 89% of baby boomers surveyed want to live their retirement years at home rather than in an assisted-living or nursing home environment. Despite this expressed wish, 75% of Medicaid payments still go to nursing homes even though Minnesota nursing homes have downsized 6,000 of their beds over the past five years. A shift in focus and in resource allotments needs to happen in the near future to accommodate this overwhelming preference for home care.

Both baby boomers and their parents are interested in staying out of what is commonly known as the "broken hip" revolving door of hospitals, rehab centers and short-term nursing home placements. But what can be done to prevent the fall that causes a broken hip? How can retirees keep their current lifestyles without significant interruption? What resources are available to make it feasible to grant their desire to remain at home?

Additional seniors' Aging in Place information can be found at:
http://www.seniorresource.com/ageinpl.htm

Cognitive care is achieved through an assistive technology that combines the functional skills of the older person to reduce age-related decline of cognitive capabilities and assist the user where necessary. Based on intelligent audio and visual processing and reasoning, the project results in a combination of a home-based and mobile device to support the user’s cognitive state and prevent cognitive decline. ..

Europe is facing severe demographic challenges from the ageing of its population. By 2020, one out of every four citizens will be more than 60 years old. Already most senior citizens are no longer employed. In the coming years, there will be fewer young people to support a growing number of older people, even as the costs of pensions, health and social care are expected to triple. Clearly, Europe needs to re-engage its senior citizens. The snag is that most of them are on the wrong side of the so-called digital divide: only 10 per cent of senior citizens use the Internet.

These are among the issues addressed by a new report which has now been posted on the SENIOR website at http://www.seniorproject.eu

The Environmental Scanning report reviews 67 projects, supported by the European Commission under its Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes, dealing with information and communication technologies (ICT) aimed at improving the inclusion of senior citizens in mainstream society while respecting ethical principles and protection of personal data.

The report also summarises key points from more than 35 policy documents and numerous other studies. From this review of projects, policies and studies, the report identifies the key themes (or issues), clusters, junctures and gaps that should be taken into account in constructing a “roadmap”, the purpose of which is to set out the actions that should be taken to help overcome the digital divides that isolate senior citizens from mainstream European society.

SENIOR is a 24-month support action which aims to provide a systematic assessment of the social, ethical and privacy issues involved in ICT and Ageing, to understand what lessons should be learned from current technological trends, and to plan strategies for governing future trends. SENIOR is the acronym for Social Ethical and privacy Needs in ICT for Older people: a dialogue Roadmap. The co-ordinator of the project is Emilio Mordini, Director of the Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC), based in Rome. The consortium comprises eight partners from six European countries.

The 189-page report includes an executive summary. We would welcome your comments on this report and will acknowledge any comments received on the final page of the report before it is officially submitted to the European Commission.

- From Matthew Carroll Program Manager

Professor Hashimoto has been instrumental in the planning and coordination for this event. Included we have a visit to the Waseda University Joint Institution for Advanced Biomedical Sciences along with policy, funding and independant living research presentations from, Prof. Toshiyo Tamura (Chiba University), Mr. Dai Hiyama (Yamatake Co.), Mr. Tatsuya Yamazaki (NICT), Mr. Kunihiko Niwa (JST/CRDS). During this two day workshop the members of the consortium will also update each other on their progress with instantiating CAPSILs, knowledge dissimination and general roadmap work.

The partly EU-funded programme, called SOPRANO (Service Orientated Programmable Smart Environments for Older Europeans), aims to develop affordable, smart-IT-based assisted-living services to promote independence in older people, improving quality of life.

The project, which will run over 3½ years, combines the expertise of over 20 partners from six European countries, including university research institutes, public bodies and industry experts, and will demonstrate how telecare technology, IT and mobile communications can be harnessed to develop new community-based models of care.

The research will seek to develop new ways of employing assistive technology, telecare and telehealth solutions in users’ homes. It will also investigate the motor, sensory and cognitive difficulties experienced by many older people and explore the most effective vision, voice or sensory-based means of communicating with users.

The device, called Keep in Touch is the brainchild of Bob Kummerfeld, associate professor at Sydney University's School of information Technologies. [Read More]

Their responsibilities include:
- Building, facilitating and strengthening bridges between government, non-government and the corporate sectors concerned with ageing issues
- Strengthening non-government organizations through collaboration toward a common goal
- Improving the understanding of ageing polices and practice and their impact on the lives of older people

This CAPSIL research meeting will be held in:
Conferece room 4 in the BLDG 55S in Okubo Campus,
Waseda University,
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Sponsored by ACM SIGMOBILE in conjunction with ACM MobiSys 2008

[ Read More ]

ICCIT 2008 to be held in Busan (South Korea) on 11-13 November 2008

This new age pyramid has enormous socio-economic implications and demands a paradigm shift in social and health care while creating new requirements for social inclusion and access to public services. At the same time, the complexity and lack of accessibility and usability of many ICT-based products and services is a major barrier for many people. Currently 30% of the European population is not actively participating to the information society. [1]

The European Commission funds ICT research by selecting project proposals submitted following the publication of a ‘Call for proposals’.

[1] EU ICT Challenge 7: Independent living and inclusion

The working meeting sessions covered roadmap plans for body sensor networks, home and mobile monitoring systems, software and interaction, intervention systems, clinical and ethnographic requirements along with strategy and integration.

1. Presentation of international clinically-driven ICT solutions to aging – results from CAPSIL work package support work
   
2. Identification of international conferences to hold next three workshops
   
3. Establishment of research support roadmap and determination of policy stakeholders that will incorporate the roadmap into orginiaztional policy.
   
4. Definitions and structure of CAPSIL modules including outcome of investigation of CAPSIL’s as a social network platform such as EU-PRACTICE.eu.
   
5. Establishment of a CAPSIL business plan sustain the CAPSIL infrastructure beyond the end of the project.
   

The aging of society is the single most important aspect of health care in the 21st century. Many intriguing ICT solutions are being developed within the EU, USA, and Japan for helping older people remain independent longer. However, these solutions tend to be fragmented and heterogeneous. The CAPSIL Coordinating Support Action (CSA) team is a strategic international coalition of University and Industrial partners that already have extensive teams developing hardware/software/knowledge solutions to independent living based on user requirements. All partners of CAPSIL are already members of regional and national centres on aging engaged in the process of helping to establish public policy and international standards. This support action is to launch initiatives, coordinated and disseminated by a series of workshops in the US, EU, and Japan (two per year for two years), with three fundamental goals:

* to develop a detailed CAPSIL Roadmap for EU research to achieve effective and sustainable solutions to independent living based on an in-depth analysis of independent living requirements and the ICT scenarios developed or under development in the EU, as well as the US and Japan (societies where the aging of the population are currently on par or exceeding the challenges that will be found within the EU).
* to support aging research by proposing procedures to incorporate all of these diverse solutions into WiKi entries (CAPSIL WiKi). These CAPSILs will enable researchers and the ICT industry to get the information they need to quickly and easily test solutions for prolonging independent living within the many and various heterogeneous communities. Only with this knowledge will the relevance and efficacy of technological solutions be maintained and be empowered with the capability to be adapted for various cultures.
* to use the CAPSIL Roadmap and the CAPSIL Workshops to help policy makers in the US and Japan coordinate research agendas and funding efforts across the three continents.