AgeTech
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DESIGNED WITH & FOR OLDER ADULTS
There was a time not so long ago when Paul Lea could not step outside his door without being overcome with fear. In 2008, he suffered a massive stroke, which was followed by a diagnosis of vascular dementia two years later. It left him confused and unable to leave his apartment unaccompanied because he feared getting lost.
“I’d panic when I’d go outside and go right back in.”
“For six years, life was hell. My daughter had to take time from her life to basically teach me how to live. I didn’t go out,” Lea told Mind Over Matter®.
Then he met Ron Beleno. Beleno spent years as the principal care partner for his father, and, in the process, learned all about how technology could assist both care partners and people with dementia.
“He was my mentor. … He introduced me to the tech that could help me,” said Lea.
Through Beleno, Lea became involved with AGE-WELL, a Canadian research network that supports developing and deploying technologies that support people as they age.
Lea learned how technology could help overcome his challenges. It changed his life.
Now, he no longer fears going outside, confident that technology loaded on his phone will ensure that his door locks behind him, that he won’t get lost, and that he can easily connect with his daughter to assure her he is OK.
(Technology) gives me freedom and peace of mind.
He also uses an app called MAXminder, which reminds him when to take the seven to eight daily medications he is prescribed, a common concern among people dealing with cognitive decline.
“(Without it), I think I would get confused about my medications and when I’m supposed to take them.”
MAXminder is one of dozens of innovations developed with the help of an AGE-WELL grant.
It came to be thanks to Drs. Jeffrey Jutai and Virginie Cobigo of the University of Ottawa, who brought in tech developer Dinis Cabral to design a reminder app, hoping to improve the products already on the market.
“Most of them were not designed for people with cognitive impairment who might struggle with technology,” Mr. Cabral, the CEO of JLG Health Solutions, told Mind Over Matter®.
WE NEEDED SOMETHING STRAIGHTFORWARD, SUPER SIMPLE. THERE COULDN’T BE A LOT OF BUTTONS ON A SINGLE SCREEN, JUST ONE OR TWO, WITH LARGE ICONS AND FONTS FOR PEOPLE WITH WEAKER VISION.
Crucially, early versions of MAXminder were tested with people with cognitive issues, like Lea, who provided valuable feedback on how to make it work for those who would actually be using it. It also has a care partner component, which helps them ensure that their loved one is keeping up with their meds.
Mr. Cabral says that once people start using the app, they like it and are prepared to set aside their pill boxes and calendars. But the tricky part is getting them to try.
“Technology is going to be important for helping people as they grow older, and there’s a lot of technology out there. One of the big challenges for doing this is how do we get the technology into the hands of older adults, how do you get them to start using it, so they can really see the value of what it can do?” he said.
That is part of the mission of Dr. Alex Mihailidis, AGE-WELL’s Scientific Director.
“There are significant opportunities here,” he said in an interview with Mind Over Matter®.
AGETECH IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR PEOPLE, BUT IT’S AN IMPORTANT TOOL IN THE TOOLBOX TO SUPPORT HEALTHY AGING. IT CAN HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF OLDER ADULTS AND THEIR CAREGIVERS.
Dr. Mihailidis, an engineer, first became interested in this kind of technology when he was in grad school at the University of Toronto. A colleague told him about the challenges of caring for a spouse with early-onset dementia.
“He said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if tech could help?’”
That was the start for him, and many others have jumped aboard. In less than a decade, the AgeTech sector has grown dramatically in Canada, with AGE-WELL supporting about 65 startups.
“We’ve come a long way. We started from being a country with basically no AgeTech industry whatsoever. Our startups were leaving to go to the U.S. Now we have a small but growing sector,” said Dr. Mihailidis.
He is involved on many levels, including co-leading the development of new standards for long-term care (LTC) homes by the CSA Group, a reaction to the heartbreaking loss of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new standards include recommendations to expand the use of technologies in the LTC sector, with such innovations as a device that allows a single staff person to safely transfer a resident to a stretcher from a bed or systems that can more effectively monitor the vital signs of people with severe dementia. Innovations that can ease the burden of overworked staff.
Along with reminders and tech support in the home, Dr. Mihailidis says that artificial intelligence may soon be able to predict when someone is experiencing cognitive decline by analyzing changes in how they move around their home.
While they represent important advances, developing sophisticated monitoring systems raises privacy issues. Part of AGE-WELL’s work is to examine the policy implications.
“This type of tech may not be for everyone,” said Dr. Mihailidis. “Some people don’t want to use it, while others will be willing to accept it because the alternative may be needing to leave their homes.”
AGETECH’S BENEFITS ARE NOT ONLY FOR THOSE DEALING WITH COGNITIVE DECLINE BUT CAN ALSO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE WITH PHYSICAL CHALLENGES.
Betty Faulkner has coped with essential tremors for most of her life. They started in her mid-20s and grew progressively worse as she aged. Now, at 78, she shakes all over. People often mistake it for Parkinson’s. Essential tremors are not life-threatening, but they are life changing.
“You can’t carry a glass of water, you cut yourself, and I can’t tell you how often I’ve stabbed myself in the eye while putting on makeup,” Faulkner told Mind Over Matter® from her home in St. Albert, Alberta.
She had a severe reaction to medications, so they were not an option. Instead, she did her own research online about assistive devices, which brought her to an AGE-WELL–supported startup called Steadiwear, which was developing a glove that stabilizes hand tremors.
In 2020, she got on the line with the creators in Toronto, who told her the Steadiglove was still in the early stages of design, but they agreed to send it to her to try. She found it “big and clunky” but also effective.
“It made such a difference,” said Faulkner. “It doesn’t stop (the tremors) completely, but it was enough to get back to normal life. It gave me back some sense of normality.”
Faulkner advised the developers to work toward a smaller, more streamlined version, which they did with the next iteration. Now, she is excited to soon receive the latest generation of Steadiglove, which incorporates her feedback.
“Tech is really helping people get back to living a normal life.”
The future of homes for older people is being previewed at a replica “smart apartment” at Ottawa’s Bruyère Research Institute. A team co-led by Dr. Frank Knoefel, a physician in the Bruyère Memory Program, is testing various sensor-based smart technologies that can help older adults live independently and safely.
The team, funded partly by AGE-WELL, uses the acronym SAM3 (Sensors and Analytics for Monitoring Mobility and Memory). They seek to go beyond the smart home applications that are already widely available (think Alexa).
THE CONVENIENT AND FUNKY TECHNOLOGY IS BEING DEVELOPED AND BEING SOLD. WE’RE TRYING TO MAKE IT SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES.
The researchers have developed systems that can remind people that it is time to eat or advise someone with dementia who had gotten up in the night that they should go back to bed or sound an alarm to wake a care partner if they are about to wander outside. Where the innovations need to improve is in guiding someone with cognitive decline in more complicated tasks, such as making a meal.
“There are technological issues that are far from solved. Human behaviour is extremely complex,” said Dr. Knoefel. “Even the Amazons and Googles, with very significant financial resources, have challenges.”
But AgeTech is already transforming lives like Lea’s. From the man fearful of leaving his apartment, he is not only living independently but has become an advocate for people living with dementia and a tester of new technologies.
For him, “the potential is unlimited.”