Mission and Goals

Welcome to the Center for Technology and Aging. The Center is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2009 with a grant from The SCAN Foundation (www.thescanfoundation.org) and is affiliated with the Public Health Institute (www.phi.org). Our purpose is to advance the diffusion of technologies that help older adults lead healthier lives and maintain independence.

The Center identifies promising strategies to promote the diffusion and adoption of technologies and provides grant funding to test selected strategies. In collaboration with grantees and key stakeholders, the Center will disseminate best practices and lessons learned from grant making initiatives. The Center serves as a state and national resource for those engaged in the promotion and implementation of successful technology diffusion strategies.

The Center focuses on the following areas of technology:

Medication Optimization - technologies designed to help manage medication information, dispensing, adherence, and tracking.

Remote Patient Monitoring - technologies designed to manage and monitor a range of health conditions.

Assistive Technologies - devices and equipment that help individuals perform a task or prevent injury.

Remote Training and Supervision - technologies used to train and supervise health and long-term care workers, and the potential for continuing education and quality assurance.

Disease Management - patient-centric, coordinated care processes for patients with chronic conditions and conditions that have a significant self-care component.

Cognitive Fitness and Assessment - technologies that measure cognition or include cognitive practice regimens.

Social Networking - technologies that enable the building of communities of interest that help older adults communicate, organize, and share with other older adults and care providers.

The Center's goals are:

1. Identify successful technologies that are ready for adoption, including their expected benefits and rationale for broad use.

2. Identify and evaluate best practices of diffusion and the means for taking technologies to scale.

3. Disseminate best practices for diffusion, along with practical tools and techniques.

4. Develop policy positions that support adoption and diffusion of beneficial technologies.

5. Serve as a national resource center that promotes the diffusion of state-of-the-art technology for providers and policymakers.