Dr. Joe Coughlin, AgeLab Director, was the featured speaker at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Grand Rounds, April 2008. Grand Rounds invites the hospital’s clinician and research community to lectures covering issues of critical interest in the science and practice of healthcare. Dr. Coughlin’s talk, entitled – New Technology & Old Age: Innovating the Future of Healthy Aging addressed the implications of demographic change and new technology on how the healthcare system will care for the health and wellness of an aging society. His talk identified several key drivers of systems change including a new wave of older, yet empowered, health consumers; the emergence of new non-traditional health services providers; and, the application of ubiquitous computing to enable ubiquitous health services. Dr. Coughlin forecasted that these factors, as well as a dynamic public policy environment, will exact profound change on hospitals and general practitioners – transforming many hospitals into clearinghouses of systems information and today’s general practitioner into services consultants for older patients and caregivers.

AgeLab maintains a continuing collaborative partnership with the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University Medical School. Working with the MGH Senior Health, Geriatric Medicine Unit, AgeLab researchers examine important issues impacting the lives of older people - including quality of life metrics, nutrition, family caregiving, and telehealth services to the home.