Using technology to redefine the new normal for aging

January 3, 2022—UC Davis works to make aging—and caring for aging family members or friends—healthier and more connected than ever. The Healthy Aging in a Digital World initiative develops innovative technologies to advance wellness, enhance independence and reduce the personal and societal challenges of aging.

With more than $11 million in philanthropic funding, this UC Davis Big Idea supports research in the art and science of healthy aging.

“I am excited about discovering ways to age well,” said Heather M. Young, dean emerita of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and Big Idea co-champion. “Our team of experts innovates with tools and technology that hold the promise of enabling individuals to stay in the communities in which they live—connected to their caregivers and their care providers—in an inobtrusive way that maintains their independence, predicts their challenges and avoids the risks associated with growing older.”

The Interactive Care (I-CARE) Platform

Many older adults are familiar and highly competent with technology. In fact, 73 percent of people 65 and older surf the internet and 53 percent use smartphones. By leveraging this connectivity to support older adults’ independence, more people can age in place.

“The Interactive Care Platform, or I-CARE, is a system designed to connect older adults with cognitive impairment to their family members who live apart from them. It supports them with important daily activities,” said Dr. Alyssa Weakley, assistant professor in the Department of Neurology.

The goal for I-CARE is to create a user-friendly device that’s uniquely tailored to older adults and their family members to help assist with activities, manage medication regimens, reduce isolation and improve brain health.

“I-CARE captures backend data through machine learning techniques so, when subtle changes occur that may suggest cognitive or health decline, the caregiver is alerted to possible interventions,” Weakley said. “We are currently completing a pilot intervention with cognitively impaired individuals and remote caregivers to assess the usability and feasibility of this platform.”

Walking in the Living Domain (WILD)

Aging brings about changes in walking, balance and the risk for falls. UC Davis is working on solutions to reduce the consequences of fall injuries by measuring the subtle yet vital changes in walking patterns.

“Walking is such an important marker of physical health and function, people have often named it a sixth vital sign,” said Dr. Carolynn Patten, professor and director of the Biomechanics, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Lab in the School of Medicine Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

“By analyzing the variability and characteristics of gait parameters such as stride time, we can predict falls, detect cognitive decline and map certain parameters to specific forms of dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Our Walking in the Living Domain, or WILD, project offers an innovative digital health solution and is working toward a novel predictive analytics tool for clinicians to use.”

WILD uses markerless motion capture technology to enable comprehensive 3D gait analysis outside of the traditional laboratory. The team sets up eight cameras in UC Davis Health facilities and community settings. Participation requires only a few minutes to capture a person’s walk; they have the data they need to determine next steps within 30 minutes.

“We hope to collaborate with machine learning experts to improve our data analytics methods and to compare our markerless system with commercially available wearable sensors,” Patten said.

Smart Home Platform for Aging Well

Nearly 90 million U.S. adults have voice-activated smart speakers at home. Yong Choi, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences–Health Informatics Division, and his team alter these popular smart speakers so their use extends beyond entertainment.

“The vision of the Smart Home Platform for Aging Well includes older adults living in this smart home environment where they can access their health information from digital virtual assistants to manage their health and wellness more easily,” Choi said.

“Fundamentally, we wanted to understand how older adults perceive and use the technology and identify the barriers of these smart speakers, so that we can inform our version of technology tools and improve upon what’s currently available.”

The smart speaker with AI health assistant is the conduit for all the data exchanges to help older adults stay in their homes longer by staying connected to their health care team. Choi and his team are nearly complete with a prototype and are optimistic about sharing this technology with the rest of the world.