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DIME PROJECT

Aging in Place of Choice with Connected Health Technologies

From AgeTech innovation to sustainable implementation

AGETECH DEVELOPER: DATA REPOSITORY

Data repository of lived experience

In this section, you will hear directly from older adults and care partners about their experiences, priorities, and challenges related to aging in place.

This repository brings together de-identified, structured quotes and narratives from semi-structured interviews with older adults and care partners across the US. The interview findings, together with results from our survey of older adults and care partners, informed six cross-cutting themes that capture common experiences and priorities related to aging in place. Each entry is tagged by theme, population, geography, and care challenge, making it easy to explore the experiences most relevant to your work.

Use these firsthand perspectives to inform patient-centered research, product development, and tool design grounded in the real-world experiences of the people these technologies are intended to support.

Survey findings

Explore the survey findings that helped validate and contextualize the themes identified through the qualitative interviews, providing a broader view of the needs, preferences, barriers, and decision drivers reported by older adults and care partners.

PREVIEW OF SELECT SLIDES

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DOWNLOAD THE FULL SURVEY FINDINGS (PDF)

THEMES & INTERVIEW RESULTS

Independence, safety, & connection

The fundamental needs that shape why older adults choose to use technology: maintaining independence and control over daily life, feeling safe at home, and staying connected to others.

“The goal [of the technology] should be to keep me able to do the things that I do, and not do it for me.”

– Older adult

Context

This participant explicitly states their desire for technology to act as a collaborator during daily routines like meal prep, rather than completely taking over the task and diminishing their abilities.

Cost & access barriers

The structural factors that determine whether someone can access a technology in the first place, including affordability, geographic availability, internet access, and awareness of coverage or financial assistance.

“I would try anything as long as I get assistance financially to do so. Medicare is not going to pay for a [smartwatch]; that’s a luxury. I am currently living with an implanted heart monitor because of the Syncope. Medicare pays for that because it is medically necessary.”

– Older adult

Context

Explaining how living on a fixed income means the participant can only adopt technologies that are gifted to them or deemed medically necessary by insurance.

Trust & usability

The factors that determine whether a technology feels safe, trustworthy, and usable for an aging user.

“There’s always this permanent need to reinvent the user interface, which means I have to constantly learn. It’d be great if…there would be less pressure to reinvent the user interface, and use good human factors, design principles, and not have me memorize new things.”

– Older adult

Context

Discussing the fatigue of constant software updates and the burden of having to continually relearn how to navigate digital devices when interfaces change.

Care partner burden & shared decision-making

The impact of technology on the people providing care, including the time, effort, and responsibility required to manage it, as well as the reality that technology decisions are often made jointly by older adults, care partners, and others involved in their care.

“[Technology,] it’s useful, but it’s just more work for [me] because she [the older adult] wouldn’t understand how to charge it and all that type of stuff… and then connect to her app. … If I’m doing all the tech stuff for her, that’s just basically more work for me.” 

– Care partner

Context

Explaining why outfitting their great-grandmother with a smartwatch would ultimately just create more daily chores for this caregiver as the family’s designated tech manager.

Fragmentation across systems & tools

The frustration created by disconnected experiences at both the system and user levels: healthcare providers who cannot easily access or act on data from digital health technologies, and a growing number of apps, devices, and platforms that each require separate accounts, logins, and workflows.

“The main hurdle for me is always that [using technology] requires signing up for this and that, so I already have a long list of accounts. And creating just another… user account, another password, another app, that’s going to be my main hurdle.”

– Older adult

Context

Explaining that the primary barrier preventing them from adopting new health trackers (like a smart ring or new wearable) is the fatigue of having to juggle yet another digital ecosystem.

From adoption to sustained use: The last mile

Purchasing a technology does not guarantee sustained use. This theme explores the gap between having a technology and integrating it into everyday life, including the role of trusted recommendations, hands-on support, onboarding, troubleshooting, and ongoing assistance.

“If there were training… And if the onboarding experience would be very helpful in terms of if there were more support as I’m starting something new to help me along the way … that would help [me continue to use the technology].”

– Older adult

Context

Discussing what specific features would help them overcome the initial hurdle of adopting a new technology, emphasizing a need for structured, step-by-step guidance rather than being left to figure it out alone.

    DOWNLOAD THE INTERVIEW RESULTS (XLXS)

    *Supported by funding from The SCAN Foundation, this lived experience research ensures that our resources are rooted in the direct voices and everyday realities of older adults and care partners

    You’ve reached the end of the AgeTech Developer Playbook

    Throughout this playbook, we’ve explored strategies for commercialization, ecosystem integration, and product design for older adults and care partners. Navigate to the main page to read through our case studies, which highlight examples of how these AgeTech products are being used in the real world.
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