Project Overview

New technologies are promising in their potential to help older adults with cognitive and physical limitations and their caregivers. For example, technology can be used to reduce caregiver burden, promote independence, manage safety risks and reduce stress. Despite these benefits, bringing these technologies to market remains a challenge. In fact, few older adults and caregivers benefit from assistive technologies in their day to day lives. To address this issue, there has been a move towards consulting with older adults and caregivers during the technology development process, but this approach is not always implemented or successful. As such, there is a need for a common guide to evaluate technologies throughout the development process to ensure they are aligned with the needs and values of older adults and caregivers. The specific aims are to: 1) complete a scoping review of existing tools to develop the evaluation content and criteria; 2) conduct focus groups with end-users to a) establish the importance of distinct evaluation criteria and b) identify new ones; 3) develop the evaluation framework and tool and vet it with AGE-WELL investigators; and 4) promote the use and implementation of the End-user Led EValuation of Assistive TEchnology (ELEVATE) tool across Canadian and international research groups and industries. ELEVATE will: 1) assist engineers and researchers to create useful technology solutions that lead to positive change in the lives of older adults and their caregivers; 2) accelerate the commercialization pathway by providing technology developers with a simple and vetted method to align their products with the needs and values of target end-users; and 3) provide AGE-WELL with a minimum dataset tool to evaluate developed technologies.