Digital Innovations for a Happier, Healthier Aging

About

We live in an ageing world that is undergoing remarkable changes. Every global region is experiencing an increase in longevity, which naturally brings more physiological limitations and threats to maintaining an adequate quality of life. This phenomenon creates new demands for assistive innovations that cover different health-related quality of life (HRQoL) domains and can support individuals to live longer in good health [1, 2].

In this context, HRQoL innovations intend to use assistive technologies to maintain the ageing population’s good health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), delay care dependency, and even prevent non-communicable diseases [3, 4, 5].

Technological advance is an important factor in this ecosystem since it is continuously creating new opportunities to apply emerging resources that attend to the needs and desires of older adults, integrating them into the social and physical environments in which we age. Therefore, innovators must be aware of these technologies to better design with older adults, develop solutions that are responsive to their needs while maintaining user control, and create solutions that support health, their everyday HRQoL, and their quality of life (QoL) [6].

The summer school will address important questions at the heart of current technology and ageing population. Several of these questions will emphasize the concept of prevention, which typically consists of methods or activities that seek to reduce or deter health issues, protect the current state of well-being, or promote desired HRQoL outcomes or behaviours.

Course leader

Prof Katarzyna Wac, Ph.D.,Professor of Computer Science at the University of Geneva

Target group

advanced graduates, Ph.D. students, post-doc students, junior researchers, practitioners, care professionals, providers (e.g., start-up owners), and social scientists working in the domain of the ageing population, QoL, and HRQoL. We seek to cultivate a transdisciplinary approach. The course is, therefore, open to a broad range of disciplines and stakeholders (i.e., social sciences, health/life/medical sciences, computer science/engineering, and law) with interest in digital technologies and ageing.

Fee info