Built environments for frail older adults: The now and next

The growing number of seniors worldwide is the source of many challenges for our society. The first one is epidemiological and relies on the constitution of a group of older adults considered frail because of specific medico-social attributes, combining an accumulation of advanced chronic diseases, reduced resilience, loss of independence, and changes in the social and family environment. The second challenge is economic and corresponds on one hand to the financial costs of medical and social care for frail older adults, and on the other hand to the growth of an economic sector – the “silver economy” – based on the development of new services and new technologies to compensate for the disabilities of frail older adults

The development of gerontechnology for hospitalized frail elderly people: The ALLEGRO hospital-based geriatric living lab

Our objective was to bridge the gap between gerontechnology developers and hospitalized frail elderly people, in order to promote open gerontechnology innovation in hospitals. We designed a hospital-based living lab that provides reflexive "idea incubator workshops" that gather both the users and the developers of technology, supplemented with an "experimental hospital room" for the testing of devices by older inpatients. The ALLEGRO living lab was delivered in 2018 at the Geriatric Department of Angers University Hospital, France. The workshops and experimental hospital room should help frail older inpatients to participate in the co-design and co-development of new technologies to improve hospital care and promote successful aging