Ageing in a digital world
AUSTRALIA’S growing population of people over 65 may find the challenges of ageing easier to deal with in future, thanks to a new Research Hub for Digital Enhanced Living.
Led by Deakin University’s pro vice-chancellor ICT Innovation and Translation Professor John Grundy and Australian Research Council laureate Professor Svetha Venkatesh, the ARC research hub’s multidisciplinary team of researchers, partner organisations and industry collaborators will adapt and build personalised technologies to support the wellbeing of elderly people living at home or in residential aged care.
“The rapid growth in our ageing population is a major emerging societal challenge in Australia and around the world,” Prof Grundy said.
“As people live longer, the need to provide aged-care facilities and in-home support increases, but existing facilities and resources can’t keep up with this increasing demand for care and support
“The Hub for Digital Enhanced Living will address the need for effective, affordable, scalable and safe in-home and in-residential care solutions that use current and emerging sensor, interaction and integration technologies — a ‘smart home’ focused assisted living.”
It’s hoped the hub will create a new research and development ecosystem for digital enhanced living to deploy new and repurposed devices, analytics and integration platforms to improve care of the aged.
Researchers at the hub, including 11 from Deakin, are drawn from a diverse range of disciplines such as nursing, aged care, palliative care, health informatics, sport and exercise science, human computer interaction, pattern recognition and data analysis and software engineering.
“We hope that our work will eventually form part of a larger health delivery system so the wide range of expertise in the team is essential,” Prof Grundy said.
He said the aim of the hub was to improve people’s quality of life as they aged through the use of appropriate and affordable technology that would also assist carers, family and friends in caring for them.
One well-known example of wellbeing monitoring through technology is fall detection, but Prof Grundy said this could be extended to technology that “learns” a person’s normal pattern of behaviour and detects changes that could indicate help is needed.
As well as developing new technology, the hub will focus on augmenting the use of existing smart technologies — such as iPads, mobile phones, computers and smart televisions — to support people as they age.
“We’re not investigating expensive assistive technology; our solutions need to be cost-effective for providers and users,” Prof Grundy said.
To help ensure this, an important aspect of the hub is its emphasis on consultation with end users, including the ageing person, their family and carers and care providers.
“The solutions we trial in terms of technology innovations won’t come from researchers pulling them out of thin air,” Prof Grundy said.
“I expect some really great ideas are going to come from the aged themselves, from their families and from experienced workers in the industry in different roles.”
This “living lab” approach will help the hub’s researchers develop a solid understanding of what end users need and want from “enhanced digital living”.
“Every person’s ageing process is different, as are their medical and life histories and homes,” Prof Grundy said.
“There is no ‘one size fits all’; there is not even several sizes fits all. The individual needs to be in charge of the process, so the solution might be something quite simple or something quite sophisticated.”