• 
• 
• 

Can we help elderly citizens retain their quality of life using networked biosensor technologies?

IoN Conference - Advanced Technologies for an Ageing Population

Glasgow: 23 - 24 March 2011

Developing biosensor technology into useful applications for the home and environment in order to improve our lives has become an important societal goal and major growth area for research. Enabling technologies such as nanotechnology have allowed us to shrink biosensors to a tiny size, improve their capabilities and accuracy and incorporate them into many everyday items like clothing, textiles and domestic electronics. Likewise, information and telecommunications technologies now allow us to network these biosensors in novel ways.

With an ever-increasing proportion of elderly people in the population, can we adapt and guide novel biosensor technologies into useful products and solutions to help senior citizens?

At the Institute of Nanotechnology’s forthcoming Conference Advanced Technologies for an Ageing Population, to be held in Glasgow on 23-24 March 2011, several international experts will explore how the power of networked biosensors can be harnessed to improve the quality of life and independence of elderly citizens.

Conference Speaker: Professor Dermot Diamond

Professor Dermot Diamond from the National Centre for Sensor Research at Dublin City University will explore how life patterns can be tracked and services built from monitoring utilities. He will also examine the potential for smart fabrics and wearable biosensors for personal health monitoring and will consider some of the ethical issues and barriers to adopting these technologies into smart homes for the elderly.

See a video clip of Professor Diamond talking about the potential distributed biosensors at the recent Institute of Nanotechnology/Cranfield University summer school on nanobiosensors.

Conference Speaker: Melanie Turieo

Melanie Turieo of Cambridge Consultant Ltd, Boston, USA will explain how healthcare technologies can be connected in a user-friendly way for the benefit of elderly citizens. Out of its research in collaboration with leading institutes such as Tufts University and residential homes for the ageing, Cambridge Consultants has developed several wireless-based applications that are designed to connect patients and their treatment devices, such as inhalers, with healthcare support professionals and a range of online applications.

Read more about Cambridge Consultants work with Tufts University >>

Conference Speaker: Dr Malcolm Fisk

Dr Malcolm Fisk of the Health Design and Technology Institute at Coventry University will discuss the potential effects of such 'disruptive' telehealth technologies (e.g. set-top boxes and mobile 'apps') and will examine how this will change service paradigms and clinical agendas. In addition, Dr. Fisk will consider the need to frame services in the future in ways that will increasingly empower users and facilitate self-management.

Listen to a podcast by Dr. Fisk on the impact of telecare and telehealth >>

Leave a Comment