The Lower Saxony research network design of environments for ageing: towards interdisciplinary research on information and communication technologies in ageing societies.
Worldwide, ageing societies are bringing challenges for independent living and healthcare. Health-enabling technologies for pervasive healthcare and sensor-enhanced health information systems offer new opportunities for care. In order to identify, implement and assess such new information and communication technologies (ICT) the 'Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing' (GAL) has been launched in 2008 as interdisciplinary research project. In this publication, we inform about the goals and structure of GAL, including first outcomes, as well as to discuss the potentials and possible barriers of such highly interdisciplinary research projects in the field of health-enabling technologies for pervasive healthcare. Although GAL's high interdisciplinarity at the beginning slowed down the speed of research progress, we can now work on problems, which can hardly be solved by one or few disciplines alone. Interdisciplinary research projects on ICT in ageing societies are needed and recommended.
Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Braunschweig and Hannover Medical School, Muehlenpfordtstrasse 23, Braunschweig, Germany. Reinhold.Haux@plri.de
Reinhold
R
Haux
Andreas
A
Hein
Marco
M
Eichelberg
Jens-E
JE
Appell
Hans-Jürgen
HJ
Appelrath
Christian
C
Bartsch
Thomas
T
Bisitz
Jörg
J
Bitzer
Matthias
M
Blau
Susanne
S
Boll
Michael
M
Buschermöhle
Felix
F
Büsching
Birte
B
Erdmann
Uwe
U
Fachinger
Juliane
J
Felber
Tobias
T
Fleuren
Matthias
M
Gietzelt
Stefan
S
Goetze
Mehmet
M
Gövercin
Axel
A
Helmer
Wilko
W
Heuten
Volker
V
Hohmann
Rainer
R
Huber
Manfred
M
Hülsken-Giesler
Gerold
G
Jacobs
Riana
R
Kayser
Arno
A
Kerling
Timo
T
Klingeberg
Yvonne
Y
Költzsch
Harald
H
Künemund
Jennifer
J
Kunze
Wolfram
W
Ludwig
Michael
M
Marschollek
Birger
B
Martens
Markus
M
Meis
Eike Michael
EM
Meyer
Jochen
J
Meyer
Wolfgang
W
Nebel
Franz J
FJ
Neyer
Petra-Karin
PK
Okken
Hartmut
H
Remmers
Lars
L
Rölker-Denker
Thomas
T
Rohdenburg
Meinhard
M
Schilling
Gisela C
GC
Schulze
Bianying
B
Song
Jens
J
Spehr
Elisabeth
E
Steinhagen-Thiessen
Uwe
U
Tegtbur
Wilfried
W
Thoben
Peter
P
Van Hengel
Stefan
S
Wabnik
Friedrich
F
Wahl
Sandra
S
Wegel
Olaf
O
Wilken
Simon
S
Winkelbach
Thorben
T
Wist
Manfred
M
Wittrock
Klaus-Hendrik
KH
Wolf
Lars
L
Wolf
Melanie
M
Zokoll-Van Derlaan
D000375:Aging; D004779:Environment Design; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D007256:Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000379:methods; D012106:Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012944:Social Support