Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature

BackgroundThe number of older people with unmet care and support needs is increasing substantially due to the challenges facing the formal and informal care systems. Emerging technological developments have the potential to address some of the care and support challenges of older people. However, li...

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Main Authors: Abdi, Sarah, de Witte, Luc, Hawley, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: JMIR Publications 2020-08-01
Series:JMIR Aging
Online Access:http://aging.jmir.org/2020/2/e17286/
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author Abdi, Sarah
de Witte, Luc
Hawley, Mark
author_facet Abdi, Sarah
de Witte, Luc
Hawley, Mark
author_sort Abdi, Sarah
collection DOAJ
description BackgroundThe number of older people with unmet care and support needs is increasing substantially due to the challenges facing the formal and informal care systems. Emerging technological developments have the potential to address some of the care and support challenges of older people. However, limited work has been done to identify emerging technological developments with the potential to meet the care and support needs of the aging population. ObjectiveThis review aimed to gain an overview of emerging technologies with potential care and support applications for older people, particularly for those living at home. MethodsA scoping gray literature review was carried out by using the databases of 13 key organizations, hand searching reference lists of included documents, using funding data, and consulting technology experts. A narrative synthesis approach was used to analyze and summarize the findings of the literature review. ResultsA total of 39 documents were included in the final analysis. From the analysis, 8 emerging technologies were identified that could potentially be used to meet older people’s needs in various care and support domains. These emerging technologies were (1) assistive autonomous robots; (2) self-driving vehicles; (3) artificial intelligence–enabled health smart apps and wearables; (4) new drug release mechanisms; (5) portable diagnostics; (6) voice-activated devices; (7) virtual, augmented, and mixed reality; and (8) intelligent homes. These emerging technologies were at different levels of development, with some being trialed for care applications, whereas others being in the early phases of development. However, only a few documents mentioned including older people during the process of designing and developing these technologies. ConclusionsThis review has identified key emerging technologies with the potential to contribute to the support and care needs of older people. However, to increase the adoption of these technologies by older people, there is a need to involve them and other stakeholders, such as formal and informal carers, in the process of designing and developing these technologies.
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spelling doaj.art-fad3ec32f64d4baaa2a39173c1e7f8952022-12-21T17:43:39ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Aging2561-76052020-08-0132e1728610.2196/17286Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray LiteratureAbdi, Sarahde Witte, LucHawley, MarkBackgroundThe number of older people with unmet care and support needs is increasing substantially due to the challenges facing the formal and informal care systems. Emerging technological developments have the potential to address some of the care and support challenges of older people. However, limited work has been done to identify emerging technological developments with the potential to meet the care and support needs of the aging population. ObjectiveThis review aimed to gain an overview of emerging technologies with potential care and support applications for older people, particularly for those living at home. MethodsA scoping gray literature review was carried out by using the databases of 13 key organizations, hand searching reference lists of included documents, using funding data, and consulting technology experts. A narrative synthesis approach was used to analyze and summarize the findings of the literature review. ResultsA total of 39 documents were included in the final analysis. From the analysis, 8 emerging technologies were identified that could potentially be used to meet older people’s needs in various care and support domains. These emerging technologies were (1) assistive autonomous robots; (2) self-driving vehicles; (3) artificial intelligence–enabled health smart apps and wearables; (4) new drug release mechanisms; (5) portable diagnostics; (6) voice-activated devices; (7) virtual, augmented, and mixed reality; and (8) intelligent homes. These emerging technologies were at different levels of development, with some being trialed for care applications, whereas others being in the early phases of development. However, only a few documents mentioned including older people during the process of designing and developing these technologies. ConclusionsThis review has identified key emerging technologies with the potential to contribute to the support and care needs of older people. However, to increase the adoption of these technologies by older people, there is a need to involve them and other stakeholders, such as formal and informal carers, in the process of designing and developing these technologies.http://aging.jmir.org/2020/2/e17286/
spellingShingle Abdi, Sarah
de Witte, Luc
Hawley, Mark
Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature
JMIR Aging
title Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature
title_full Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature
title_fullStr Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature
title_full_unstemmed Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature
title_short Emerging Technologies With Potential Care and Support Applications for Older People: Review of Gray Literature
title_sort emerging technologies with potential care and support applications for older people review of gray literature
url http://aging.jmir.org/2020/2/e17286/
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