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What does ageing mean to you? As ageing population becomes an imminent issue for modern societies, a number of startups drew inspiration from their daily lives and melded them with advanced technology, releasing a series of Gerontech products showcased at Link Sustainability Lab at Lok Fu Place, with an aim to break stereotypes about ageing, and launch our elderlies into the age of active ageing.
The HKSAR Government projects that by 2046, 36% of the population in Hong Kong will be elderly people aged 65 or above, that is, one in every three persons will be an elderly person. To achieve age at place, the brilliant minds behind Gerontech recognises that elderlies and their caretakers must know their body and mind conditions. Gordon Lee, Vice President of Booguu Company shared that falls, a more common cause of injuries in elderlies than people normally think, is just like the monitoring of blood pressure or cholestrol – it must be done regularly.
Booguu’s Aspire Fall Risk Management and Fall Prevention Therapy systems aim to make fall risk assessments and preventive therapy more accessible for the elderly. With this technology, the elderly and their caretakers can now take preliminary tests at medical centres instead of hospitals and monitor and enhance their condition without leaving their homes.
“It all started with a random moment of interest we took in the irregular shifting motion we can usually detect under our feet when riding a minibus,” Booguu’s Gordon explained. “With this product, we want to apply the latest technology to improve elderly care.”
Through the cloud-based platform, caretakers and medical service providers can now prescribe, both in-person or remotely, appropriate preventive therapy exercises for elderly participants according to test results. Caretakers can also track completion progress and benchmark their performance.
“Gerontech products supplement professional services, enabling people to comprehensively address their needs after recognising their condition and potential solutions.” Incus’ Co-founder Sigurd Anders Berg said. The company’s Kite 2 Smart Personal Sound Amplifier provides hearing aid capabilities with the same user-friendliness of Bluetooth earphones. Sigurd explained that in Hong Kong, only about 5% of people who need hearing aids actually own one. Many elderly who belong in this category do not carry a hearing aid because they see it as an act of surrendering to their age.
Sigurd suggests that more positive representation of ageing in mass media such as movies and entertainment for younger generations can help them gain better understanding and empathy towards issues faced by the elderly and help to challenge negative ageing stereotypes. On the other hand, educational institutions could introduce courses about Gerontech, with a focus on the design thinking process and how to cater towards end user needs, nurturing talent for the emerging sector.
An Elderly Simulation and Empathy Building Workshop was held at Link Sustainability Lab recently. Icy Choi, Project Officer of the Department of Physiotherapy at Hong Kong Metropolitan University hopes that by allowing the younger generation to experience simulated day-to-day challenges and inconveniences faced by the elderly, they will empathise and show more care to the elderly around them.
“Many people don’t appreciate what it’s like to experience a gradual decline in physical functioning as we age. There’s simply not enough education regarding how to connect, communicate and get along with the elderly. Hosting the workshop at Link Sustainability Lab isa different experience than in school classrooms or community centres, as the space features a dedicated theme of inclusion, which complements our workshop perfectly. This allows participants with an initial understanding of the subject to leave with greater learnings.”
Icy reported that most workshop participants were very engaged and positively surprised by their experience. “I’m glad they can more deeply understand the struggles of their parents or grandparents, and realise that they should take good care of them. That alone is the greatest reward for me from hosting these workshops.”
To most elderly of Chinese descent, dementia remains a taboo subject. Nathan Hui, Co-Founder & Director of Medmind Technology Limited used to work for multinational pharmaceutical companies specialising in geriatrics and psychiatry. According to Nathan, elderly people rarely ever monitor for their risk of dementia, leading to many unfortunate cases where it becomes too late to help. “The tedious and uninventive exercises typically prescribed at elderly centres inevitably lead to disengagement.”
Nathan and his team decided to come up with their own solution – NeuroGym – which aims to be both enjoyable and effective in improving and monitoring cognitive disorders like dementia.
By introducing games that incorporate everyday life elements such as mahjong, calligraphy and grocery shopping, Nathan hopes to make cognitive enhancement training fun, interactive and engaging for everyone. For elderly people living on their own or with their spouse in particular, they can connect with their friends and family members online through these games, improving their quality of life and mental health while keeping their abilities in check.
“We have moved past static worksheets and puzzles to “livelier” games more aligned to our daily lives. One of the goals of NeuroGym is to break the ageist stereotype that the elderly are too old for technology. We want people to know that they can do it all - handle tech with ease, stay in shape and age in place.”
From inspiration to design, to fine-tuning and product launch, Gerontech always finds itself embedded to parts of our everyday lives that are needed by our communities. To be able to turn a small observation into a fully-fledged R&D project and ultimately a useful product, Gordon, Sigurd and Nathan all shared that they could not have accomplished this feat without the active involvement and proactive feedback of the elderly themselves.
Link properties covers an extensive community network that makes a great platform for the elderly to learn more about Gerontech. All three startups are committed to promoting Gerontech more widely across Hong Kong through similar avenues.
