Joseph F. Coughlin, Director of the AgeLab, served as plenary speaker at the World Congress on Chronic Care and Prevention in Alexandria, Virginia. Joining national and international leaders in healthcare, research, information technology, and government, Dr. Coughlin presented his talk “Consumer-Driven Innovations in Chronic Disease Management.” He argued that while the aging baby boomers will introduce additional demands and costs on the healthcare enterprise, their expectations as consumers are attracting new stakeholders and driving new technologies, services, and organizational models. Drawing upon his forthcoming article in IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology, “A Consumer-Centered Approach to Intelligent Home Services to Support Health, Wellness & Aging-in-Place,” Dr. Coughlin identified emerging innovations, such as retail services, intelligent home health, and mobile monitoring and advice as nascent but powerful sources of change in defining the future of health.

Health and self-care is a major research theme of the AgeLab. Working in collaboration with insurance, information technology, telecommunications and health companies, AgeLab is conducting original research to understand baby boomer and older consumer health behaviors as both patients and caregivers – including the interaction and influence of technology, technology adoption, information seeking and social networks on wellness, disease management, use of prescription and OTC medications, and overall health outcomes that enable independent living across the lifespan.