Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize

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We are pleased to announce that the WSIS Forum Special Track on ICTs and Older Persons will be initiating a special prize this year entitled, the WSIS Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize, focused on ICTs that specifically address the needs of people 60+ to achieve and sustain an active and engaged life as they age. Calling for submissions starting from 15 February 2021. The WSIS Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize is an exceptional international recognition of WSIS Stakeholders as leaders for their excellence in supporting innovation that brings sustainable solutions for the ever-increasing global population of older people.

As a part of the Special Track on ICT’s and Older Persons, the WSIS Forum together with the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) and other stakeholders have created this prize and offer the winner a cash prize as well as recognition at the WSIS Forum. Submissions will be made through the official submission form, with ten nominees selected by a panel of international judges. The winner, and finalists, will be announced during the WSIS Forum 2021. All submissions will also be considered for the renowned WSIS Prizes.

This initiative was born during the WSIS Forum 2020’s first ever ICTs and Older Persons special track, which was a great success. The reference of this activity was included in the UN Secretary-General’s Report “Follow-up to the International Year of Older Persons: Second World Assembly on Ageing” A/75/216: Highlighting the importance of older persons as a cross-cutting topic, in 2020 the World Summit on the Information Society Forum, for the first time, has dedicated a special track to older persons and ICT. In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, the new track will address the role of ICTs in combating age-based discrimination in the workplace, achieving healthier ageing, building smarter cities, ensuring the financial inclusion of older persons, supporting millions of caregivers across the world and in digital inclusion across the generations to enable the Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020–2030.

With 2 billion people over the age of 60 by 2050, the silver economy that creates and sustains innovation directed to this population represents a $17T economic opportunity for governments, businesses and civil society. ICTs have an important role in supporting people to stay healthy, connected and independent, physically, emotionally and financially – to a life of healthy ageing - and are critical for the sustainability of economic and health systems. This prize aims to support the efforts of those entities that have recognized the dual benefits of innovating for this global market need and creating opportunities for their own populations.

The winning projects will be showcased together with all valid submission in the special WSIS Stocktaking: ICTs and Older Persons publication, while all submitted descriptions of projects and activities will be reflected on the WSIS Stocktaking platform. We invite all WSIS Stakeholders to participate in this contest that is organized in six phases, following the Rules and Guidelines.

Call for Submissions

Phases of the Contest

Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize: Finalists

Age Care Technologies (UK) WINNER

Age Care Technologies’ vision is to improve the lives of older people via four key components: ACT™ Assessment, ACT™ Training, ACT™ Analytics and ACT™ Advice. ACT™ Assessment is a digitized care planning tool which matches the needs of older people to local resources. ACT™ Training is a digital online or classroom-based learning programme for caregivers for older people. ACT™ Analytics uses anonymous information collected during use of ACT™ Assessments, to provide a unique, global dataset about the concerns, local resources, outcomes of intervention and trajectories in older people’s wellbeing, independence, social connection and health. These scores generated can be used with individuals as motivational tools to address concerns and with populations to describe levels of need, the impact of interventions and trajectories in health-related quality of life (independence, safety, security and wellbeing).

Age Care Technologies’ model has been found to be replicable in low, middle and high resources countries, across all WHO regions, and is the only system for person-centered assessment identified in several WHO reports as an example of best practice.

‘Are you okay today’ (The Netherlands)

'are you okay today' uses electric appliances that are already present in the house such as a kettle, television or smartphone. The system learns the normal daily usage pattern of these devices. Using an app that shows a traffic light (red, yellow or green), the son or daughter check whether there is a deviation in this pattern at any time and see whether everything is still okay, without affecting the privacy of the senior.

Assistants for Safe Mobility (Germany)

The ASSAM project aims to compensate for declining physical and cognitive capabilities of elderly persons by user-centered development of modular navigation assistants for various mobility platforms, such as walker, wheelchair, and tricycle, providing sustained everyday mobility and autonomy with seamless transition from indoors to outdoors in environments such as residential complexes, the neighborhood quarter, or touristic areas. Modular assistance systems provide obstacle avoidance, navigational aid, cognitive assistance for visual impairment, and security by connection to a care center in emergency situations. The ASSAM Consortium includes many partners from Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain, and the ASSAM Alliance comprises industrial partners from Germany and Norway.

MyCognition (UK)

MyCognition is a holistic therapeutic platform that takes the form of an application that allows older people (50+) to improve cognitive reserve/resilience, and prevent cognitive deterioration. Insights are delivered in the form of Healthy Habits and Additional Learning which taken together are designed to boost cognitive growth and individual potential. Healthy Habits encompass lifestyle changes through to changes to work routines and work environments. Additional learning content provides detailed context to the science behind the MyCognition programme, helping individuals to better understand the drivers of cognitive fitness and how and why it can be improved.

The app has been clinically proven to slow cognitive decline in older Parkinson's disease patients, receiving a 75% satisfaction rating. The app is NHS-approved.

OsteoLink (Denmark)

OsteoLink is a platform where people who care about osteoporosis can connect with each other, share their experience, find credible, up-to-date information about osteoporosis and learn from one another.

The International Osteoporosis Foundation, in partnership with the University of Geneva, developed the first version of OsteoLink in 2009. OsteoLink is managed by the International Osteoporosis Foundation, with support from IOF National Society members.

Rendever (US)

Rendever uses virtual reality and shared experiences to overcome loneliness and social isolation. Rendever’s headsets are networked together so participants all experience the same thing at the same time, and a conversational platform is built on top to craft dynamic and engaging conversations. In response to the pandemic, Rendever launched The Connection Corner, giving residents in different rooms a chance to come together and safely socialize in a virtual community room. VR avatars are personalized to look like each resident, so they can all sit “next to each other” together in VR and chat the same way they would before socially distancing.

ServiSenior (Chile/Uruguay)

ServiSenior addresses the lack of job opportunities for people over 50 years of age, who are active or who have already retired, and who want to generate additional income, to feel valued and useful. ServiSenior uses the gig economy to create flexible job opportunities for people over 50 years, connecting them with companies that need help to improve operational or administrative processes. To date, ServiSenior has helped more than 700 older adults connect with flexible job opportunities, allowing them to generate more than US$750,000 in total revenue and more than 200,000 hours of activity.

Voiceitt (US)

Voiceitt's speech recognition technology is designed to recognize and translate non-standard speech patterns. Its first product is a mobile application that translates unintelligible speech in real time, thus enabling users with speech impairments ("dysarthria") to communicate and be understood by voice. Voiceitt also supports voice commands for environmental control through integration with voice assistants, enabling the person with speech and motor impairments to perform basic tasks independently.

Walk With Path (Denmark)

Walk With Path has developed walking aids for Parkinson’s disease and sensory deficit. Its devices can be used by particulars to help prevent falls, and foster personalized understanding of wellness and health. Healthcare professionals can also use the devices to receive personalized metrics to deliver better care, real-time understanding, safer discharge from hospital and independent at home living such as falls risk predictors.

Wealthspan (US)

Wealthspan offers science-based estimates of lifespan and health span that are hyper-personalized based on inherited and acquired traits of individuals, couples, and families. These traits are then linked to data on accumulated and projected wealth with the goal of maintaining health span.

Buddy HomeCare (Thailand)

Since 2015, Buddy HomeCare (BHC), a social enterprise operated by the Foundation for Older Persons’ Development (FOPDEV), has been working on an innovative intergenerational approach to solve the dual problems of older people in need of care services and of indigenous youths living in poverty with limited educational opportunities. By leveraging smartphone technology with their community-based healthcare and monitoring system mobile app, Buddy HomeCare assists three target groups: older people with low incomes, older people with middle and high incomes, and youth with low incomes. BHC provides a 3-month training course for these youth with a curriculum designed by Chiang Mai University’s faculty of nursing.

BHC has been able to roll out its program to include monthly visits to 45 customers and daily visits to 110 customers. BHC also works with the Karen people, a distinct ethnic group with their own language who live in Northern Thailand and Myanmar. There, BHC offers disadvantaged Karen youth training to become caregivers, providing them the opportunity to contribute to the wellbeing of older people while also offering them access to educational and better career opportunities.

Livelihood for the elderly through therapy and social transportation for tourism project from the Global Centre for Compliance, Hazards and Disaster Management (GLOCECOHADIM) (Cameroon)

The goal of this project is to create livelihood for the elderly through therapy and social transportation for tourism, by identifying elderly persons that are disabled, unable and unattended and to identify caregivers to the elderly, location and localization to normalize their social security on local transport, cultural identity and social affiliation to the various changes in society and well as stabilizing their walking and moving ability and assured transport facility by it using tricycle, motorcycles, support tools or free ambulance services.

Learn more about the winners