Healthcare
Short Takes: Stephen Lane
Lane co-founded Item Group and over two decades has built up a dynamic and entrepreneurial design and development firm. Steve focuses on defining and executing new initiatives, both corporate and long-range planning, capitalization and strategic partnerships. Lane thrives as an active leader in the design, entrepreneurial and venture communities, and is an adjunct faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the department of industrial design.
A conversation between Dr. Richard Besdine and Dr. Stefan Gravenstein
Dr. Richard Besdine and Dr. Stefan Gravenstein discuss nursing home environments, and how individualized care models coupled with techology can increase the quality of life of their inhabitants.
Understanding the Elderly Experience: Inciting Incidents
There are many reasons why individuals may require higher levels of care than can be provided in their own homes. Mitigating these incidents (falls for example) and the impact on seniors can have a profound affect on the path that the remainder of their life may follow.
Take a Tour of the Nursing Home of the Future
Learn more about the Business Innovation Factory's Nursing Home of the Future and the platform we've created to design and test new solutions in elder care.
Assisted Living Personal Care Workshop
The NHoF team's deep dive into personal care routines began with a series of design workshops wherein the elders were free to act like design students, with no wrong questions and no bad ideas. See the workshop unfold in high speed.
Understanding the Elderly Experience: The Many Journeys of Aging
We often think of aging as a simple straightforward arc from birth to the end of life. In fact it is far more complex, with many different and convoluted possible paths, some of which lead to long-term facility-based care near the end of life.
Understanding the Elderly Experience: Personal Care
Maintaining dignity as an elder who needs assistance is tough, and never tougher than during a visit to the bathroom to use the toilet or to bathe. The experience of personal care and lack of autonomy in these areas is an important determinant of quality of life.
Understanding the Elderly Experience: The Care Triad
The senior is one part of a triad that includes family and caregivers. The relationships in the triad are crucial to aging well, not only for direct healthcare needs but also for the longer-term implications of isolation and depression affecting quality of life.
Understanding the Elderly Experience: Mobility
As the aging process takes a toll on physical stamina, lack of mobility becomes increasingly important. Trips to the bathroom, bathing, mobility (in, around and out of the home), and the lack of autonomy in these areas are important determinants of quality of life.
Understanding the Elderly Experience: The Sensory Environment
As we age our ability to sense the world around us changes. Although it may seem like a minor inconvenience to others, a gradual loss of hearing can lead to a lack of social engagement, which can also lead to withdrawal, disengagement and have a significant affect on both psychological and physical health and quality of life.