This Mitacs-funded (IT35141) postdoctoral research fellowship will explore the landscape of standards and guidelines in AgeTech design and development.
AgeTech refers to digital technologies or digitally-enabled products designed explicitly for or with the potential to benefit older adults and caregivers, often to help them live in homes and communities of their choice. This includes a range of innovations supporting aging in place, healthy aging, staying connected, and other applications. These technologies may include digital health, assistive technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT), medical devices/diagnostics, robotics, wearables, and other sensor-based technologies. Still, AgeTech innovators can struggle with the adoption of AgeTech products or services by older people, their caregivers, and the systems that help care for them. One factor contributing to this translational challenge is the lack of standards-based solutions for AgeTech design and evaluation that may result in products that are either not fit for purpose or do not address a real need.
The supporting partners in this project, The National Research Council of Canada’s (NRC) Aging in Place Challenge Program (AiP), AGE-WELL, the University of Waterloo, and CSA Group, are working collaboratively towards developing an overarching AgeTech Design and Evaluation Framework as a first step towards developing standards for AgeTech design and evaluation. The outputs of this work will include:
(i) A roadmap to guide development of AgeTech best practice design and evaluation standards,
(ii) An evidence-informed toolbox to share this knowledge with stakeholders.
These deliverables will support future work towards standards and guideline development in this area. To achieve the goals of this proposed research project, our research team will conduct a literature review and an environmental/jurisdictional scan guided by a working group of experts (including those who are experts by experience) and will leverage user-centered design and co-design to create a toolbox to support knowledge mobilization. Through this research project, our team seeks to address a major challenge in AgeTech development by providing the necessary tools to translate innovation from research labs into technologies that have practical use and real-world impact for older adults and their care partners. Gaps in standards and guidelines will be identified, providing a roadmap for future research and development for researchers, industries and standards developers.