The post Ashleigh Beltempo, Tessa Murchison, Jannah Mustafa, Charles Prévost, Ayman Yaaqoubi, Hajer Chalghoumi, Emily Jones Joanisse, Rachel Sturm, Sara Aghvami, Laura Laird, Bruce Wallace, Heidi Sveistrup, “Evaluation and Comparison of an Online and an In-Person Digital Literacy Program”, AGEWELL AGM, 2025 appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

The post Frank Knoefel, Heidi Sveistrup, Emma Daoust, Cassandra Druken, Noel de Sasio, Marla Calder, Krista Whitney, “Usability of a New Supportive Smart Home Technology Readiness Assessment Tool: Perspectives of Occupational Therapists”, AGEWELL AGM, 2025 appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

The post Hajer Chalghoumi, Emily Jones Joanisse, Rachel Sturm, Sara Aghvami, Laura Laird, Bruce Wallace, Heidi Sveistrup, “Emotional Barriers to Digital Technology Avoidance Among Older Adults”, AGEWELL AGM, 2025 appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

A story about the work we are doing in SAM3.

The post New research study explores ways to boost digital literacy for older Canadians appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

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Canadian Healthcare Technology – Aug 31, 2023

Reaching 40 million in population calls for a celebration in Canada! With nearly one out of five Canadians being at least 65 years of age as of July 2022, the need to have choices for quality aging has become even more important.

Home is where Canadians like to age. Home is also the environment that can impact our health and well-being.

The idea of having our homes do more for us – the place we work so hard all our lives to maintain – is a desired concept for many. Looking at the same idea through healthcare’s lens, a connected and accessible home can also take some pressure off our health system.

Many factors come into play when making our home meet our needs as we age in place. Technology is one of those factors. Starting with the basics, such as making the home safer and more connected with healthcare and loved ones, is what national service providers such as Best Buy Canada have been focusing on through their services.

Their bundled solutions come in a variety of need types identified through partnering with healthcare and community organizations.

For example, one of their bundles can connect individuals with their doctors, loved ones, and the delivery person at their front door. Soon their bundles will offer convenience such as robot vacuums and mops to skip the manual maintenance of home hygiene – to add time to things that really matter, such as calming our minds and moving our bodies to keep well.

Their not only looks timelessly stylish, but it also tracks many health metrics to help us celebrate our progress and work on areas that need nurturing. How different bundles can support aging in place are evaluated through research partnerships such as .

Best Buy Health also focuses on a gap that keeps some of us from getting the most out of our technology – digital skills. Their free-to-access program has lessons and how-to’s for commonly asked questions all in one place, using step-by-step instructions and jargon free language. They invite everyone to come and learn at their own pace – and repeat the lesson as many times as needed without having to remember a password.

If ever in doubt on how to install and connect our devices, Best Buy’s Geek Squad Agents are a service appointment away. Their hundreds of hours of training in creating human-centric experiences help individuals enjoy the many benefits that technology offers.

The goal of these services is to provide Canadians with meaningful options when they are designing how they would like to age in place.

For information about Best Buy Health by Best Buy Canada Ltd., e-mail health@bestbuycanada.ca.

The post Solutions for aging in place have never been more important in Canada appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

�Ӱ�ԭ�� this book

Significant health-industry human resource needs increase the reliance on family and friends to support older adults hoping to age in place. This book explores how recent improvements in integrated home technologies have the potential to address those challenges. The book considers how embedded home sensors can be used to monitor the health and wellbeing of older adults and how that can be used to assist with supporting safety and well-being. The content is designed to help multiple stakeholders in the supportive smart home space to better understand the complexity of this field and the need for transdisciplinary collaboration. These stakeholders include the older adults who will benefit from supportive smart home technology;  informal and formal caregiver and healthcare professionals concerned about the older adult’s well-being; researchers from multiple disciplines in the supportive smart home area and their funders; companies looking to develop solutions and services or expand their offerings; policy makers who want to ensure privacy and equity in access and a successful integration of these technologies into the evolving health and social services sectors; and students, the future leaders in AgeTech. Overall, the intent of the book is to inspire engineers, computer scientists, industrial designers, clinicians and healthcare providers, social scientists, students, policy makers, and older adults and their caregivers to collaborate in advancing the supportive smart home space to develop more options for aging in place.

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Coverage of SAM3 by Canadian Healthcare Technology

Best Buy Health, the Bruyère Research Institute, and AGE-WELL are partnering on new research into how technology is introduced into the home to support aging in place, in collaboration with experts from �Ӱ�ԭ�� University. Researchers from Bruyère and �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Faculty of Engineering and Design will be working with occupational therapists (OTs) to better understand how consumer technology, such as Best Buy’s Healthy Homes bundles, can be used to improve quality of life for older adults aging at home.

With more and more consumer technology solutions available, researchers are looking to see how that technology is adopted and implemented in the homes of older adults. Occupational therapists (OT) are a central part of this research, as they have a critical role in recommending solutions to support older adults’ ability to perform daily activities in the home.

“We know that most older adults want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. The home assessment is an opportunity to identify challenges in the home environment, and to suggest where assistive devices and technology can help support safety, independence, and wellbeing,” said Dr. Krista Whitney (pictured), co-investigator and physician at Bruyère.

The project team will review how technology is currently integrated in home assessments, then look to understand how older adults are using recommended technologies to validate the benefits and identify key challenges and barriers. The team will create an approach to incorporate technology into OT recommendations. Participating occupational therapists will pilot the approach with older adults, seeking feedback on their experience, and providing their own feedback.

“The life solutions we dream of are ones that can enable independence and living well. Best Buy Health is thrilled to be partnering with the Bruyère Research Institute and AGE-WELL to make people’s homes healthier,” said Sara Aghvami, director of Best Buy Health. “Technology solutions offered by Healthy Homes bundles offer older adults the opportunity to take control of their health and home.”

“Supporting multisectoral collaborations that foster healthy aging and advance the AgeTech sector is an important part of AGE-WELL’s mandate. We are delighted to support exciting collaborations between active members of our network like Best Buy Health, Bruyère, �Ӱ�ԭ�� University and our SAM3 National Innovation Hub to develop and evaluate technology-driven solutions that promote aging in place,” said Alex Mihailidis, PhD, scientific director and CEO of AGE-WELL, Canada’s technology and aging network. AGE-WELL is a co-funder of the project with Best Buy Health.

Long-term, the team hopes to develop a clinical practice toolkit to better include consumer technology solutions in occupational therapists’ home assessment guidelines.

The post Best Buy, �Ӱ�ԭ��, Bruyère work on aging at home appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

Here the story of our work in this CBC Radio Interview.

The post Using technology to keep seniors in their homes longer – CBC Radio Moncton appeared first on SAM3 AGE-WELL National Innovation Hub.

With more than a fifth of all Canadians projected to be aged 65 or older prior to 2030 (according to Statistics Canada) and up to 6% of the population anticipated to be aged 80 or older within that same period, experts at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, the Bruyère Research Institute, the National Research Council Canada (NRC) and Best Buy Health are currently exploring how enhanced smart-home monitoring technologies could play a key role in keeping seniors in their homes longer and improving their overall health and quality of life as they age.

As Canada continues down the path towards an aging population with increased health care costs and needs, smart home integration for seniors may be a crucial step in establishing sustainable care for the future, while helping older adults live more independently by providing caregivers with valuable data that can help identify changes in daily functioning and inform possible health needs.

In this talk – moderated by Dr. Amaya Arcelus, Director of the NRC’s Aging in Place Challenge Program – event panelists Dr. Rafik Goubran, �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Vice-President (Research & International), Dr. Frank Knoefel, Bruyère Research Institute physician, Dr. Heidi Sveistrup, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Bruyère Research Institute and Vice-President, Bruyère Continuing Care, and Sarah Aghvami, Director of Best Buy Health, will discuss the benefits of in-home sensor-based smart technologies that can monitor numerous aspects of older adults’ health, safety and well-being. In outlining their collaborative research, the panel will identify how sensor data can help caregivers identify seniors’ health needs and lead to informed care decisions. They will also discuss important privacy considerations, along with broader applications of health-based smart home monitoring, such as assisting persons with disabilities and enabling greater personal health awareness among the general population.

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