Built environments for frail older adults: The now and next

Gerontechnology aims at improving the functioning of older people and their carers in their daily lives as well as improving gerontological practices. To promote gerontechnology innovation in the hospital and bridge the gap between gerontechnology developers and hospitalized frail older patients, our objective was to create and implement a hospital-based geriatric living lab. We designed a hospital-based living lab, providing reflexive workshops bringing around the table gerontechnology users and developers, supplemented with an experimental hospital room receiving both the users and the devices to be tested. Three different types of users were distinguished: seriously ill older inpatients, professional hospital caregivers, and informal carers. Three different kinds of devices were also distinguished: prototypes under development, new services and/or care organizations, and new uses. Finally, we were able to open in 2018 the Angers Living Lab En GéRiatrie hOspitalière (ALLEGRO) hospital-based geriatric living lab. ALLEGRO offers the organization of "idea incubator workshops" for users and developers, together with one “experimental hospital room” equipped with validated devices to provide reference measures used as a standard to test the diagnostic efficacy of prototypes. The room is intended to accommodate one older inpatient with severe acute organic failures. No patient selection is planned at admission, apart from consent to research. Until now, no refusal to participate in a study was noted. In conclusion, we offer a new and unprecedented hospital-based geriatric living lab to improve hospital care for older inpatients and to promote successful aging through gerontechnology.

Our objective was to bridge the gap between gerontechnology developers and hospitalized frail elderly people, in order to promote open gerontechnology innovation in hospitals. We designed a hospital-based living lab that provides reflexive "idea incubator workshops" that gather both the users and the developers of technology, supplemented with an "experimental hospital room" for the testing of devices by older inpatients. The ALLEGRO living lab was delivered in 2018 at the Geriatric Department of Angers University Hospital, France. The workshops and experimental hospital room should help frail older inpatients to participate in the co-design and co-development of new technologies to improve hospital care and promote successful aging.

z Le vieillissement de la population française est un défi pour les années à venir. La gérontechnologie représente un atout face à ce défi z Étonnamment, le milieu hospitalier en est peu équipé z C’est pourquoi le centre hospitalier universitaire d’Angers (49) a créé le living lab Allegro afin de favoriser le développement de la gérontechnologie en milieu sanitaire avec la participation active des usagers.

The ageing of the French population is a challenge for the years to come. Gerontechnology represents an asset in the face of this challenge. Surprisingly, the hospital environment is not very well equipped. This is why the university hospital center of Angers has created the ALLEGRO living lab in order to promote the development of gerontechnology in the health sector with the active participation of users.