Organisational life assistant: How an IT system can help for the ageing society

Thanks to the high standard of living and especially the advanced health care system of the developed countries the life expectancy is continuously increasing. Since the human mobility increased as well, the family members often live far from their ageing parents or relatives shifting the responsibility of the elderly care from the individuals to the society. This extra burden on the social care system can be lowered by introducing IT systems, especially designed for elderly users in order to make their self-supporting period longer. The system can help in telemonitoring the living, health and mental condition of the elderly people, the keeping the connection with the relatives from far distance, providing valuable information for doctors and care providers about efficiency or the necessity of a treatment. All together the system gives greater freedom, self-confidence and safer life for the members of the ageing society, provides reassuring information for the relatives about their well-being and reduces the workload of the formal caregivers. Our system predicts advantageous or disadvantageous change in health status in a new approach based on significant change in postural stability. This paper introduces the design consideration, implementation details and usage experience, results of an elderly supporting IT system called Organizational Life Assistant.