Review of the I-Stay @home (ICT Solutions for an Ageing Society) study Wiki

Citation

Tracey Williamson (2016), "Review of the I-Stay @home (ICT Solutions for an Ageing Society) study Wiki", Journal of Assistive Technologies, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 130-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAT-04-2015-0016

Review of the I-Stay@home (ICT Solutions for an Ageing Society) study Wiki

https://istayathome.isah.aareonit.fr/index.php/Main_Page (accessed 25 April 2015)

The I-stay@home Wiki presents content from a study funded in part by the European Regional Development Fund Interreg IVB programme. The study duration is 2012-2015 and comprises housing providers, university and technical partners from North West Europe who got together to scope affordable ICT solutions and to test some of those considered most likely to assist older people to live independently. An important output from I-stay@home (ICT Solutions for an Ageing Society) is a catalogue of those smart devices considered to be sensibly priced.

The Wiki pages are set out logically to cover a welcome, project structure and objectives, evaluation and news items. Having missed a less than prominent text based tab to view the site in English, the more visual “English” icon only became apparent under the final news tab on the horizontal axis. Having clicked on this, a trip back to the home page opened up an expanded set of tabs which included participants, user experience, products, funding, downloads and contacts with content in a very readable format for the English reader.

The Wiki makes excellent use of high-quality images which pleasingly appear to include people from the study rather than bland stock images. A bespoke video created with a professional singer provides a pleasant watch and sets the compassionate tone of the study nicely. The consortium clearly does want to help individuals and communities to be resilient and to help each other whilst facilitating availability of accessibly priced technology to aid them.

The study itself installed ICT solutions in approximately 180 homes in nine pilot sites across Europe, targeted at older people and those with a disability. Participants were tenants living in the dwellings of some of the nine housing associations which were consortium partners. Initially there was exploration of participant’s day-to-day needs that could be met by an ICT solution to mitigate the effects of ageing. The range of possible devices was gathered using a survey of consortium partners and a final list of devices was appraised through expert and user review for cost and potential utility to meet the needs identified. A 12 month testing phase followed concentrating on safety, health and comfort.

Products were themed as relating to:

• tele-medicine;

• daily life organisation;

• wellness-aspect;

• special sensor technology;

• home automation;

• help for limited motor skills;

• accessibility;

• other; and

• safety.

Once participants had been given time to get used to their allocated devices, these were live tested in the dwellings using video recording and surveys to gain user feedback. Results are to be presented in a final project report due in 2015 whilst the catalogue of devices is available online and can be viewed in themes according to project objectives, product category and tenants’ needs.

This Wiki is particularly recommended to housing providers, health and social care providers, assisted living technology developers and suppliers as well as academics interested in supporting people to maximise their independence. It is also accessible to the public and has a particularly useful online transnational resource of 104 recommended products.