ISL Associate Director, Dr. Walter Boot, gave his talk on December 8th at noon, via Zoom, as part of the ISL Brown Bag Series talk.

Titled "The Potential Role of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Supporting the Health, Wellbeing, Independence, and Quality of Life of Older People," we hope this topic will intrigue and inform you all!

Dr. Boot tells us that we are witnessing the intersection of two significant societal trends, 1) a dramatic increase in the number of older people in the U.S. and around the word, and 2) the rapid proliferation of technologies that promise new opportunities to help older people maintain health, wellbeing, social connectivity, and purpose in life. However, promises of technology solutions will not be realized unless older adults’ needs, preferences, and abilities are considered, and older adults are placed at the center of a user-centered design process. Further, large-scale trials are crucial to confirm the efficacy of technology solutions for diverse groups of older people. This talk will provide a sampling of studies that have examined the impact of existing and emerging technologies, including virtual reality and augmented reality, developed using an iterative, user-centered design process, and the impact of technology-based interventions on cognitive, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes. This research has found that through careful design, scalable, useful, and usable technology solutions can provide tremendous benefit to older people.