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  • Perspective
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Digital health for aging populations

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 1623–1630 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Growing life expectancy poses important societal challenges, placing an increasing burden on ever more strained health systems. Digital technologies offer tremendous potential for shifting from traditional medical routines to remote medicine and transforming our ability to manage health and independence in aging populations. In this Perspective, we summarize the current progress toward, and challenges and future opportunities of, harnessing digital technologies for effective geriatric care. Special attention is given to the role of wearables in assisting older adults to monitor their health and maintain independence at home. Challenges to the widespread future use of digital technologies in this population will be discussed, along with a vision for how such technologies will shape the future of healthy aging.

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Fig. 1: The landscape of current wearable devices for health monitoring in older adults.
Fig. 2: The future of geriatric healthcare in the home setting.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the UCSD Center for Wearable Sensors.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Chuanrui Chen, Shichao Ding.

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  1. Department of Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Chuanrui Chen, Shichao Ding & Joseph Wang

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  1. Chuanrui Chen
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  2. Shichao Ding
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Correspondence to Joseph Wang.

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Nature Medicine thanks Jay Pandit, Bijan Najafi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary handling editor: Karen O’Leary, in collaboration with the Nature Medicine team.

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Chen, C., Ding, S. & Wang, J. Digital health for aging populations. Nat Med 29, 1623–1630 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02391-8

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