An aging-in-place laboratory
The American Association of Retired Persons estimates that 90% of the nation’s quickly growing population of older adults want to live in their own homes for as long as possible.
Enabling independent living requires collaboration among disciplines such as nursing, medicine, architecture, engineering, technological design, social work, mental health services, economics, financial planning, policy, and legal services.
The Cizik Nursing Research Institute’s Smart Apartment is designed for testing aging-in-place technology, programs, and other solutions designed to support independent living for older adults and people living with disabilities.
This fully furnished, one-bedroom home is housed within Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston’s building in the Texas Medical Center. This laboratory is equipped with sensors, monitors, robots, and other devices that researchers use to test technologies that can help monitor self-management of chronic diseases and detect health and behavior changes in aging and disabled adults.