» More analytics are needed in long-term care technology, according to comments in a report by Majd Alwan, M.D., executive director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies. The report summarized a September applied research forum on technology and services for older adults, hosted by CAST and the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing. Presenters discussed how technology can help explain human behaviors, and turn data into usable information that can enhance quality of life for seniors.
» Not many elderly Americans use the Internet to find appropriate health information, according to University of Michigan researchers. The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Around 1,400 Americans 65 years and older answered questions about how often they used the Internet and when they searched for health information.
» A Pac-Man-style “cat and mouse” game helps improve vision in people with a lazy eye and poor depth perception, an Ohio State University study suggests. Researchers found weak-eye vision improved to 20/20 and 20/50 in research participants with lazy eyes whose vision was 20/25 and 20/63, respectively, before the training began. Researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
» University of Windsor researchers developed software that can generate predictions related to complex systems like epileptic seizures. After examining the electroencephalography readings of 21 patients with epilepsy, they found plugging just a half-hour of readings into their software gave data to provide a 17-minute warning before someone would have a seizure.
» People typically ignore online computer security warnings, according to a Brigham Young University study. Researchers found that even participants who said they took cyber security seriously often cruised through malware warnings.
» Technology based off of a new application of accelerator mass spectrometry allows researchers to track potential cancer-causing compounds, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in the body.
From the January 01, 2015 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
