Istribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original function is properly cited.Wherton et al.BMC Healthcare Investigation Methodology , www.biomedcentral.comPage ofBackgroundThe ATHENE projectAging with the population in several countries is fuelling interest in assisted living technologies (ALTs) to support independence at property.This includes telecare (continuous and remote monitoring of real time emergencies and way of life adjustments through sensor devices and personal trigger alarms) and telehealth (transmission of medical information and details more than telecommunication technologies to provide healthrelated services for the house), that are designed to provide better and more cost powerful social and well being care in to the house.Quite a few illnesses (e.g.diabetes, dementia, arthritis) boost in prevalence with age, as does comorbidity.Some Methyl nicotinate site epidemiologists PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21531787 predict that demand will quickly outstrip supply for crucial health-related solutions .There is certainly a lot policy interest in `informationage’ medicine (supported selfmanagement by `empowered’ patients with specialists within a guiding function) , even though investigation into the use of assisted living technologies by older persons with several comorbidities to relieve stress on standard wellness solutions has shown mixed findings .The home environment is private and potentially sensitive.An understanding in the technological possibilities and requirements presented by domestic settings is critical for the development of new options (technologies and strategies to assistance their use) that meet the requires and wishes from the older person and that are also acceptable and cost-effective by their family members and overall health and social care providers.The ATHENE (Assistive Technologies for Wholesome Living in Elders Demands Assessment by Ethnography) project, funded by the UK Technologies Approach Board below its Assisted Living Innovation Platform, is employing ethnographic methods to illuminate the daily living demands of older persons .The overarching goal is usually to make a richer understanding on the complex and diverse living experiences and wants of older people today and how business, the National Wellness Service (NHS), social services and third sector can operate with older men and women to `coproduce’ valuable and useable ALTs.ALTs don’t operate in isolation.Their uptake and use are mediated by options and routines inside the domestic setting, at the same time as wider social factors relating towards the loved ones, neighborhood and public sector solutions.This means that the improvement of solutions must be grounded in the lived experiences of customers.The integration of new technologies and current domestic routines also requires a mutually adaptive and evolving procedure.Coproduction (or corealisation) is a methodology for delivering innovation which focuses on usercentred, `designinuse’ of each technologies and practices by means of continually feeding back users’ experiences into ongoing style and improvement .The ATHENE project consists of two phases.Phase 1 requires ethnographic research of individual circumstances to map the complicated healthcare, social care and sociocultural desires of older men and women and their carers from a array of ethnic and social groups.Phase two requires forward as much as volunteer circumstances to explore how older people and their households can perform straight with market designers to generate fitforpurpose technologies, or adapt current technologies, that fit in with people’s lives and lifestyles.The project will inform new approaches for conducting the coproduction of ALTs and recognize successful techniques of in.
