Content developed in various citizen research projects, usually related to technology and aging..
For years we have been hearing older adults complain about how ugly and stigmatizing medical alerts are. As one lady told us: “My medical alert button makes me look like I escaped from the Intensive Care Unit. So I hardly ever wear it“. Could these products change this dynamic? In 2018 a handful of products came … Read more
Here is an overview of useful Apps for people with Low Vision. This is a companion piece to the article by Marlena Chu from the UC Berkeley School of Optometry on Low Vision Aids. It includes Apps for the iPhone and for Android devices. This overview was collated by Ashley Katsikos, OD, and updated by Marlena Chu, OD. … Read more
Art: “Anyone for Tennis” by Caroline Mustard using iPad Pro, the Procreate App and the Apple Pencil. How to Transform your Mobile Device into a Digital Canvas or Sketchbook! I’ve been teaching people, especially those close to my own age, how to use their iPads, iPhones and Android devices creatively since I fell in … Read more
We set out to pick the best pill reminder app to share with the explorers in our Useful Apps Club. We found two apps we want to recommend, each of which is good for a slightly different life situation. This article describes which features we selected as important and why; summarizes the results of our … Read more
In a recent analysis of pill reminder apps, we had cause to examine 22 apps that helped in one way or another with medication management. Read our analysis, and see the Apps we preferred for managing medication here. There were a number of the 22 Apps which we felt fell short in various ways, … Read more
In our research on medical alert systems we have looked at over 50 different systems, and tested many of the products that look most useful. In our review database we have reviews of most of the medical alert products we have actually tested, and summaries of the ones we have studied online but not actually … Read more
A lesson of The Useful Apps Club Lesson Objective In this lesson you will learn how to set up and use the Medisafe iPhone App (application) to remind you to take a medication on time. We will also touch on a few other features of the Medisafe app. Most of the steps are illustrated with … Read more
We set out to find the best medical alert app for our Longevity Explorers who wanted to use their smartphone as a medical alert system. We focused on monitored medical alerts, found only three that looked promising enough to test, and did extensive, hands-on, comparison testing. One App emerged as far superior to the others. … Read more
Below are several different “personas”. These correspond to broad “types of life circumstances”, and we find it is often useful to ask which of these personas best fits a specific individual before trying to recommend a specific product for that person. We have used these personas especially in our research to help older adults decide … Read more
Dr. Mindy Renfro and Dr. Richard Caro gave a joint talk on “Technology for Managing Medication in Alzheimer’s Disease” at the 2016 American Society on Aging meeting (March 22, 2016). Below is a video of the talks. Overview The talk is in two parts. In the first part, Dr. Mindy Renfro discusses the clinical aspects … Read more