Inventing wellness systems for aging in place
From: IEEE Computer - 05/2004 - page 34
By: Eric Dishman

Abstract:
Unlike "mainframe healthcare," personal wellness technologies can scale with
the needs of an aging population. They can also drive a demanding
specification for the requirements of ubiquitous, proactive computing in
everyday life. Ultimately, aging-in-place research supports a broader vision
of "personal wellness systems" that provide highly individualized support for
home based healthcare to all age groups. 

Intel's Proactive Health lab emerged from an anthropological study of
households that had been early adopters of broadband technology. Almost every
study participant over age 40 asked for technology to help with the care of
aging parents. As the worldwide population over age 65 doubles in the next 20
years, the caregiving needs of this population will become an ever greater
part of our personal lives and social healthcare costs. The lab is applying
digital home technologies to the development of "aging in place" personal
health systems. These applications of wireless sensors, adaptive interfaces,
real-time data capture, and context-aware feedback provide a rigorous testbed
for digital home technologies. They also support an alternative to the costly
"mainframe" healthcare that dominates current medical science and practice.
Ultimately, aging-in-place research supports fundamental new ways of
understanding both aging and disease processes to help us all better manage
our health. 

Read the entire article at:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/2/28841/01297237.pdf?isnumber=28841&prod=JNL&arnumber=1297237&arSt=+34&ared=+41&arAuthor=Dishman%2C+E.

