AgeTech Standards Aim to Enhance Senior Living

The global population is getting older. By 2030 there will be nearly 1.5 billion people who will be at least 60, according to the World Health Organization.

Studies have found that most older adults want to stay in their own homes. To help them, an assortment of technologies known as age tech is being developed to improve their quality of life and help them maintain their independence for as long as possible. Products include health and wellness monitoring devices, financial management systems, home-care robots, and smart appliances.

But not all age tech designers are taking into account issues that older people face, such as decreased mental acuity, mobility, perception, and strength.

Designing with those concerns in mind can be guided by technical standards. Last year the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) formed the Technology Standards for the Aging (AgeTech) Industry Connections group. The IC group’s goal is to ensure that age tech products and services are easy to use, safe, and secure for senior citizens.

Age tech standards could address accessibility aspects related to aging—which aren’t considered disabilities by the U.S. Americans With Disabilities Act and similar laws.

“When we talk about age tech, we’re talking about technologies that are either specifically designed to be used by older people to address a need they have or a product that was designed for general use but has a feature that would be beneficial for an older person,” says IEEE Life Fellow George Arnold, the IC’s chair. Now retired, Arnold spent much of his career working on standards development.

“We are focused on technologies that are designed for older people and not just general products that happen to be used by older people,” Arnold says.

What senior citizens need

The IEEE Life Members Committee has raised awareness about the need to develop technology tailored for older adults. The committee supports those who are at least 65 years old and have been members for a sufficient period, such that their age and years of membership equal or exceed 100.

IEEE got involved with age tech after sessions presented at last year’s IEEE Life Members Conference, Arnold says. One session explored how emerging technologies and new applications could impact seniors. Another presentation, given by AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative, described difficulties older adults face when using newer technology, as well as their concerns about data privacy and other factors.

A discussion about what IEEE could do to address the issues led to a suggestion that age tech standards might be needed, Arnold says.

“For the most part,” he says, “these solutions have been designed for older people without their input, or being adequately tested on them.”

Arnold, along with Senior Life Member Michael Andrews and Life Member Kirpal Singh Khalsa—the conference’s organizers—got to work. They compiled a bibliography of all the projects and programs being conducted on the aging population by universities, government agencies, and private industry.

Arnold also researched relevant IEEE standards. He found about a dozen that were related but none that were specific to aging.

“We are focused on technologies that are designed for older people and not just general products that happen to be used by older people.”

Andrews, Khalsa, and Arnold then formed the IC group, which Arnold describes as an “incubator that provides a vehicle for volunteers to develop proposals for new IEEE standards.”

“The goal,” he says, “is to develop proposals for IEEE standards to address such issues as terminology, human factors [how people interact with technology], usability, metrics, test methods, and interoperability for age tech products and services.”

The IC group’s participants include representatives from AARP, the AAL Programme, the Aging Research Center, and the Smart-Aging Research Center. Several universities are involved in the initiative because, Arnold says, they’re able to provide an avenue to publish research or make people aware of their work on aging and longevity. They include Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, the Australian National University, Tecnológico de Monterrey, the University of Limerick, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The IC group also is working with the Consumer Technology Association, which deals with products sold to the general public.

Arnold encourages product developers to participate: “It’s always helpful to be the driver of a standard. In many cases, the developers get some of their intellectual property embedded in the standard or are able to find a market for what they’re working on.”

The IC group is developing a framework document to define terms used in the age tech field, providing a common understanding, Arnold says. The group also is creating a road map to help discover what standards are appropriate.

From there, he says, he anticipates writing proposals for one or more standards that should be developed by an existing IEEE standards committee.

“The thing that’s unique about the age tech program,” he says, “is that it cuts across many different technologies, so there are about half a dozen societies that could address various aspects.”

They include the IEEE Engineering Medicine and Biology Society, which deals with wearables for health applications, and the IEEE Computer Society, which focuses on cybersecurity, software, and usability issues. The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society would be involved with assistive machines being developed for older people. The IEEE Consumer Technology Society handles products for the general public. The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology takes a broad view of new developments’ impact.

Developing demographic datasets

Another area of focus, Arnold says, is creating datasets for developers to offer insights into the lives and health of senior citizens.

“A lot of datasets represent a broad range of people, from young to old, so basically products are being designed for the average person—which don’t necessarily account for differences as people age,” he says. “There are a lot of factors that need to be designed for them, such as slower reaction time and other aspects of human performance.”

A contest for aging-in-place tech solutions

The IEEE SA recently held the Aging Healthy Digital Innovation Challenge to encourage engineers to develop such technologies. The competition, which recently concluded, sought projects that would enhance patient engagement, streamline health care delivery, and improve overall patient outcomes. Products could include devices for disease monitoring and therapies; nutrition management; and personalized emotional and wellness support and monitoring systems.

The competition was sponsored by the IEEE AgeTech IC group and the New Frontiers in the Continuum of Care for Connected Health IC group, in collaboration with the IEEE SA Healthcare and Life Sciences global practice group.

  Alva Health’s NeuroCheck wearable stroke detection device is designed to identify the earliest signs of ischemic stroke. The pair of wrist-worn medical-grade devices continuously monitors motor asymmetry—a hallmark symptom of stroke—and alerts patients and caregivers when a stroke is suspected.Alva Health

The winner was Alva Health’s NeuroCheck. The wearable stroke detection device is designed to identify the earliest signs of ischemic stroke. The system consists of a pair of wrist-worn medical-grade devices, a smartphone application, and a cloud-based analytics engine powered by proprietary machine learning algorithms. NeuroCheck continuously monitors motor asymmetry—a hallmark symptom of stroke—and alerts patients and caregivers when a stroke is suspected, enabling faster treatment and improved outcomes. The device’s components were developed in collaboration with leading academic institutions and health care systems, including Yale. NeuroChek can run for more than 90 days without having to be charged.

A call to action for IEEE life members

Arnold says IEEE has a built-in roster of age tech experts who can lend their expertise to the IC group: life members.

“Life members should become involved in the IC,” he says, “because they have a tremendous wealth of knowledge as users of age tech and also the technical expertise they’ve developed during their careers.

“Many life members are now retired and still want to be involved. Helping IEEE develop age tech for practical use is a great way to stay technically and professionally engaged, and to help other senior citizens improve their quality of life.”