Centre for Complex Conditions and Ageing (CC.AGE)

One of the most pressing issues in our society is the provision of care and treatment for the growing group of older adults with chronic complex conditions (CCC). It is our vision to support older adults with CCC to live safely and independently at home with a good quality of life (QoL) and thus assist their relatives and municipal health professionals. To achieve this, we aim to explore the efficacy and cost-efficacy of a research-based digital plug-and-play mobile platform (ALIVE) connecting a range of selected technologies for use at home based on a randomized controlled trial design (RCT). Further, we will contribute to the design and testing of a social living environment (Marineholmen, Bergen), while safeguarding necessary traditional care resources.

CC.AGE

The Centre for Complex Conditions and Ageing (CC.AGE) employs major transdisciplinary collaboration between medicine, nutrition, systems engineering, economy, and ethics that builds on existing evidence, user-involvement, and methodological expertise. We will combine prospective clinical and digital data from healthy older adults and those with CCC analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The centre brings together national and international leading experts, one private foundation, one large municipal healthcare service, a user-panel, all with firsthand experience in ICT interventions. The centre increases access to research-based mental and physical value-based healthcare with positive impact on safety, QoL, caregiver burden, ethics, cost-benefit, e-health, and society.

The ALIVE platform

CC.AGE aims for sustainable technology serving users with tools to facilitate ‘warm hands’ care and independent, safe living. In-home solutions must be portable, compatible across developers, and flexible to address user and caregiver needs. CC.AGE will design a modular, digital plug-and-play mobile platform (ALIVE), with five components: core application, sensing devices, intervention modules, human-machine interface, and user apps.

Interdisciplinarity

In the nutrition work package, clinical nutritionist and postdoctoral fellow Zoya Sabir, in collaboration with Jutta Dierkes from the Center for Nutrition and a PhD student, will investigate food supply for home-dwelling elderly and how this affects nutritional status, activities, quality of life, and general health. This will involve a comprehensive mapping of food and meal services with an emphasis on cost, availability, and user-friendliness for the project’s target group. They will place particular emphasis on examining hydration status, which is often critically important and not easy to measure. In this regard, they will test various sensor technologies and assess whether these can be useful in better protecting the elderly against dehydration.

Collaboration

CC.AGE partners with Youwell and Bergen Municipality, along with national and international collaborators in health, technology and research. More collaborators will be announced later.  

Photo:

SEFAS/UiB

^{The CC.AGE roadmap illustrates the conceptual pathway and the major component of the research: a comprehensive state-of-the-art discovery process, the design of the ALIVE platform and associated pilot studies,  and the real-world implementation and RCT.}