- Sanjay Ranka and Todd Manini are developing a tech platform that will enable researchers to study older adults remotely.
- Called G-CARE, it is funded by the National Institute on Aging and is part of the National Institutes of Health.
- The research’s ultimate goal is to employ technology to gather detailed wellness data to improve quality of lives of older residents
What if researchers could understand an older adult’s health and well-being not just during an occasional doctor’s visit, but continuously — in the context of everyday life?
CISE Distinguished Professor Sanjay Ranka and College of Medicine Professor Todd Manini are part of G-CARE, a new research platform designed to bring that idea closer to reality. The platform will use familiar technologies — smartphones, smartwatches, wearable sensors and machine learning — to collect information about mobility, cognition, medications, symptoms and daily activities. By turning a smartphone into a data-processing hub and wearable devices into sources of real-time information, the researchers hope to create a more complete picture of how people age.
The project could ultimately help researchers identify changes in health and function earlier, study risks such as falls and better evaluate interventions, while making participation in aging research more accessible to older adults. G-CARE brings together engineering, geriatrics, digital health, cognitive science and clinical research in an effort to change how aging is studied.