IT is not about technology

Conference Ageing and Disability June 8th

Workshop Use of ICT - Assistive Technologies (AT)

Sjoerd Visser

Two approaches for the demographic challenges

Diminishing care demand (prevention)

Increasing labour productivity

Europe will be 159 Million employees short in 2025 due to retiring peopleSource: United Nations research

Technology makes everything possible

A Japanese-led research team Tuesday said it had made a seeing, hearing and smelling robot that can carry human beings and is aimed at helping care for the country's growing number of elderly

Tokyo (AFP) Mar 15, 2006

Robot Legs Could Give Japan's Elderly a LiftA two-legged robot being developed by Japanese scientists could one day carry the elderly and handicapped up stairs or inclines © Reuters 2006

But what do we want to be possible?Providing quality of live for an increasing number of elderly

4 Domains of “responsible care”

• Physical wellbeing/health

• Mental wellbeing

• (social) participation

• Living

It takes a lot more than technology to create a desirable safe environment

Implemented ICT

• Mostly alarm devices and comfort

• Starting: Telemedicine e.g.– Teledermatology– Blood pressure measuring– Coronary care

Hardly an integrated vision on care

Dementia biggest challenge for independent living

• Majority of elderly in nursing homes and assisted living suffer from dementia

Question: what is needed to make independent living possible for (disabled) elderly suffering from dementia?

Lots of pilot projectsBut only a few really implemented

Viedome (Netherlands)

Why are they a success?

• Trans-sector cooperation

• Clear view on the customers demand

• Organizational transformation

Why can’t they be copied (yet)?

• Organizational changes take a long time

• High financial threshold

• No clear Return on Investment

Health Buddy

Financial inhibitors

• Care givers are paid for giving care, not for preventing it

• A diversity of organisations is involved in making independent living possible (care giver, housing association, Telco etc.); the one who makes the investments is often not the one who gets the profits

• Profits of care givers are skimmed by their public funders, so it is hard both to make a business case as to find initial funding

Other inhibitors

• Cultural: resistance to work with technology amongst care giving staff

• Knowledge gap

• Increasing excess value vs lack of standardization

Statements

• The present technology push for ICT innovation does not work; Care givers need to develop their own vision and IT Strategy; Stimulation must be focussed on empowering them

• Elderly care should not be treated as a common market; the macro economic benefits of prevention conflict with the micro economic stakes; Public interference is necessarily

• Lack of standardisation is a serious hold back on ICT innovation