MONDAY 25 OCTOBER - Technology and Highrise in Portland

Visit 1. Our first visit today was to the Headquarters of the Healthcare Division of the giant of the computer processing world INTEL. Situated in a suburb of Portland this is where some of the most creative brains of this huge corporation are based in fairly modestly appointed office and laboratory facilities.

We were briefed initially by INTEL's Head of Healthcare, Eric Dishman. An inspiring speaker and acknowledged world thought leader in Ageing Services Technologies, Eric was a founding member of CAST and has been leading the technology for ageing agenda in the USA for the past decade. A key discussion point with Eric was the key role that providers of ageing services have to play in negotiating some of the barriers that still exist in bringing these technologies into mainstream services and into the hands of consumers. INTEL is a major player in this market and is actively engaged in the US healthcare reform and policy agenda, aimed at increasing the penetration of affordable technologies into the hands of consumers at the earlier stages of support need. In so doing people are able to retain independence and quality of life while keeping the costs of support down.

We were the given a further detailed product briefing by Steve Agritelley, Director of Product Research and Innovation, followed by a tour of the INTEL technology lab where we saw demonstrations of new technology such as the INTEL READER, a mobile device that reads aloud from the printed page


and the INTEL HEALTHGUIDE, a personalised home health monitoring system.



Visit 2. In the afternoon we went first to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology (www.orcatech.org). There we received a presentation by Research Associate Tracy Zitzelberger on the applied research being undertaken into Ageing in Place, and the discrete monitoring of cognition and mobility amongst older people, which can assist in the early detection and prediction of changes in health and wellbeing, thereby allowing early intervention to mitigate the effects of ageing and deterioration of cognitive ability.
Much further information at www.orcatech.org.

Visit 3. Our final visit for the day was to the stunning brand new "Mirabella" CCRC development adjacent to the OHSU, built on the banks of the Willamette River by Pacific Retirement Services Inc. This impressive 30 storey high-rise tower has recently been completed and is in the process of commissioning and filling.


The building includes 280 appts which when filled will provide homes for 380 people and employment for 150 FTE staff. Present and future residents are welcoming the opportunity to participate as volunteer research subjects in ORCATECH's further work on monitoring of Ageing in Place. Our thanks to Marketing Director Adam Payn for conducting the tour of this amazing development.
Further details at: http://www.mirabellaretirement.org/portland/


Our busy and fairly exhausting day of visits concluded with short sit down for yours truly, and a reception with members of the Board of The Oregon Alliance of Senior & Health Services, introduced by Executive Director Ruth Gulyas. Further details at: http://www.oashs.org.

Location:Portland, Oregon, USA