Tech-enhanced Life has a small group of individuals who share the tasks of creating syntheses of our explorations, and other outputs that summarize investigations in which a number of people have participated. This type of work is published under the authorship of "The Tech-enhanced Life Editorial team". We also publish a variety of content authored by specific individuals, and you can see those individual contributors profiled on our "Collaborators and Contributors" page.
At Tech-enhanced Life, our community of technologists, Longevity Explorers, and children of aging parents have been conducting hands-on, comparative evaluation of a wide variety of different medical alert products for years. In this article we dive into a specific sub-category of medical alerts: medical alert systems with gps — with the goal of helping people choose the best products in this category.
The good thing about modern technological innovations — like smart phones, smart homes, computers, video call technology, or telehealth — is that they can improve quality of life in a variety of ways. But tech gadgets are only useful if you keep them working. And today’s gadgets often need quite a lot of tech support for that to happen.
In 2020, the Longevity Explorers explored the different approaches to keeping all your gadgets running — especially during the COVID pandemic, when face to face visits are hard or impossible. Here is what we learned.
The community of Longevity Explorers are exploring different “low vision products” to see which ones help in various situations, and to share products individual explorers have used and wish to recommend. Ever have difficulty reading menus in a dim restaurant, or the fine print on a pill bottle? Or maybe you or a friend have more significant visual issues — like cataracts or macular degeneration — that get in the way of living life as you wish? If so, this article is for you.
After completing a comparative evaluation of products in the category we call “senior-friendly tablets”, lead reviewer Frank Engelman was interviewed by Richard Caro, co-founder of Tech-enhanced Life.
“Once you are a grandparent, almost nothing seems as important as interacting with your grandkids, and helping them and their parents as much as you can.” But, if you can’t visit, or live a long way away, how do you maintain the sorts of deep interactions you long for?
This group of four older adults from the Longevity Explorers thought “there should be an App for that”, and set out to explore the space of “Grandparenting Apps”.
This article is about a category of product marketed as senior tablets, or tablets for seniors. We explore which type of person would benefit from a senior tablet, rather than a more mainstream product like an iPad, and how to decide which is the best senior tablet for a specific life situation.
Location Devices and Trackers can play an important role in dementia care and management, as well as for people with mild cognitive impairment. The hope: A location tracking device can help some older adults stay independent for longer, and relieve caregiver stress.
We explore the scenarios in which different types of location devices and trackers for dementia and mild cognitive impairment can be useful, and look at a variety of specific product types and individual products to see which are most suitable in different life situations.
While staying at home for weeks or months on end is hard for everyone, older adults have some unique challenges. And as the enforced lockdown winds down eventually, those over 70 are likely to be the last to see a return to “normal” life. We created this page so members of the Tech-enhanced Life community have a place to share their learnings about how they are handling the challenges of “sheltering in place”, and to compare notes about technologies they are finding useful.
While it is too simplistic to talk of the “best automatic pill dispenser“, it is definitely appropriate to talk about the “best medication dispenser for a specific individual or life situation“. We describe the different life situations, and make specific automatic pill dispenser recommendations for each one.
There are many, many pill boxes and pill organizer solutions to choose from in your local drugstore or on Amazon. Unsurprisingly, not all of them are equally good. The Longevity Explorers have strong views about what to look for in a pill box. Here are their recommendations, and a list of the “things to watch for”.
Advance Healthcare Directives are a critical part of planning for end of life. In this article we dig into exactly what they are, how you use them, how you get help understanding them, and what we have learned about online resources and Apps for completing an Advance Directive Form.
POLST forms (also called MOLST) are a critical part of planning for end of life. In this article we dig into exactly what they are, how you use them, and how you get help understanding them.
Tech-enhanced Life has a small group of individuals who share the tasks of creating syntheses of our explorations, and other outputs that summarize investigations in which a number of people have participated. This type of work is published under the authorship of “The Tech-enhanced Life Editorial team”.
We also publish a variety of content authored by specific individuals, and you can see those individual contributors profiled on our “Collaborators and Contributors” page.