USC, Retirement Homes to Collaborate on Technology for the Aging Population
By James T. Hammond, The State, Columbia, S.C.
Apr. 17–Two Midlands retirement communities will become laboratories for new high-technology solutions to enable older adults to live longer in their own homes and deal more effectively with the challenges that come with age.
The University of South Carolina signed an agreement with the Fraunhofer Institute for Software Engineering of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Columbia’s Palmetto Health System to jointly develop technological responses to aging issues. The Lutheran Homes of South Carolina and Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community have agreed to test and help develop new products and services for the elderly.
The Lowman Homes at White Rock will equip one of its assisted living cottages with the products developed through the SeniorSmart Center. The goal will be to test commercial viability of the new products and speed their marketability.
“Our residents are pleased,” said Thomas Brown, president of Lutheran Homes of South Carolina, which operates Lowman Homes. “South Carolina’s older adults are interested in staying active. We want to help them achieve this goal.”
Danny Sanford, chief executive officer of Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community, said that as America’s elder population explodes, devising ways for more of them to live in their own homes will be cheaper for society, and reduce the need to build hundreds of new nursing homes.
USC already had a major commitment in its SeniorSmart Center to develop mobility, activity, rehabilitation and transportation technology for the elderly. The center will be the academic home of two of the endowed chairs, which were created to attract top researchers in the field to move their research to South Carolina. A third endowed chair will work with the center from Clemson University.
Research will focus on three areas:
— Making the home safer for older adults, with technological systems that help monitor their needs and assist with daily activities that become more difficult with age.
— Examining and promoting mobility outside the home by improving transportation safety and driving responses for older adults.
— And studying brain health to slow or prevent the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The Medical University of South Carolina and Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center also will participate in the research through their membership in the Health Sciences South Carolina consortium.
Dr. Paul Eleazer, director of geriatrics at the USC School of Medicine and the SeniorSmart Center’s director, said the center will eventually comprise 10 to 20 researchers who aim to keep older residents independent and engaged in their communities.
Eleazer said the center will bring together many disciplines from medicine to engineering and social work to craft solutions to the problems of aging.
Such combinations of skills could, for example, produce a refrigerator that senses outdated food, or smart cups that monitor the fluid intake of older adults who are prone to dehydration.
Dieter Rombach, who heads the Fraunhofer Institute for Software Engineering, said improving the quality of life is particularly urgent for Germany, which has the oldest average age of any industrialized country. He said the number of Germans over age 65 is expected to double by 2025.
Rombach said South Carolina offered unique conditions for collaboration with a growing retired population, and the partnership of hospitals, retirement homes and universities.
USC President Andrew Sorensen said Fraunhofer Institute is particularly good at commercializing new products. It developed the software for, and holds the patent on the MP3 digital music software used by most digital music players.
Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.
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