An airplane carrying Pope Francis touched down in Washington, DC, this week, turning our usually sedate and sometimes jaded city into a hotbed of excitement and genuine good will.
The pope’s call for international peace, and his unwavering support for the most vulnerable among us — including the poor and the aged — is a welcome message for our troubled world.
I watched the pope with admiration for his work, and with a real hope that his message will be heard clearly around the world.
But my recent trip to Larnaca, Cyprus, also made me realize that some of the work Pope Francis is encouraging us all to do is already underway around the globe.
Interfaith Cooperation in Lebanon
I witnessed that work in early September at the first Lebanese Interfaith Elder Care Conference. I stopped at the Cyprus conference on my way home from Perth, Australia, where I was attending the joint conference of the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IAHSA) and Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA).
The Moadieh Evangelical Center for Assisted Living in Beirut organized the Cyprus conference in collaboration with Palm Village Retirement Community, a LeadingAge and IAHSA Member in Reedley, CA.
Palm Village supported the development of the Moadieh Center, which has broken new ground in Lebanon as the country’s first assisted living community.
Even more important, though, the center works everyday to bring peace to its tiny corner of the globe by welcoming all older adults, regardless of their faith. That’s a powerful mission to pursue in a country with a history of violence among Christians, Muslims, and Druze.
The Cyprus conference, which is described in this issue of Tech Time, brought together 12 Lebanese providers of aging services to learn, share, and participate in collaborative work centered on one basic and important goal: offering older adults in this region the highest possible level of compassion, dignity, and quality of care.
I was happy to introduce conference participants to the important role that technology could play in helping them reach their goal. But I received much more than I gave.
I left Cyprus with great hope for the global field of aging services, a new respect for the dedicated aging services providers who I met, immense gratitude that I was able to witness interfaith collaboration aimed at serving older adults, and a sense of contentment for being able to bridge the culture of American speakers and Arab attendees.
I saw Pope Francis’ message of hope being lived out in a conference room in Cyprus. I’m sure he would have approved.
LeadingAge Annual Meeting is Next!
Now that we are back on U.S. soil, the CAST staff is putting the finishing touches on the 16 educational sessions that we are preparing for the 2015 LeadingAge Annual Meeting and EXPO, which takes place Nov. 1-4 in Boston.
Our offerings include an Annual Meeting General Session on the intersection of technology and policy. That session will feature a conversation between CAST Chair Mark McClellan and Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is a CAST University Member.
Our other sessions span a range of topic areas, including:
- Interoperability of electronic health records (EHR).
- Telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
- Medication management.
- Strategic IT planning.
- Analytic and reporting technology.
- WiFi implementation.
- Technologies to enhance care coordination, customer service, and dementia care.
Check out our article about the Annual Meeting for a quick summary of our 16 Annual Meeting sessions.
It All Starts with HackFest
Even before the Annual Meeting officially opens, young technology innovators will be working hard to design a technology tool to help improve the lives of older adults and their families. That work takes place during our 3rd Annual HackFest, which begins on Friday, Oct. 30 at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
HackFest offers young people a fun way to become familiar with — and excited about — the field of aging services technologies. And that’s exactly what our field needs.
See our HackFest article or visit the LeadingAgeHackFest.org to learn more about how you can help us sustain the energy and excitement that we sparked during our first 2 HackFest competitions.
To learn more about becoming a HackFest sponsor, please contact Margaret Wanca-Daniels.
Also in This Issue
This issue of Tech Time is filled with great news from CAST Partners, Supporters, Patrons, and Business Associates.
Be sure to read about how Philips, a LeadingAge Silver Partner and CAST Supporter, is launching 2 initiatives to help consumers manage their diabetes. And join us in congratulating CAST Partner PointClickCare on its decision to become a publicly traded company.
We’re also glad to see many examples of LeadingAge and CAST members collaborating with one another:
- Our latest CAST case study explores how CAST Patron Westminster-Canterbury on Chesapeake is working with CAST Supporter It’s Never 2 Late to study the effect of computer use on people living with dementia.
- CAST Supporter ProviNET Solutions and CAST Business Associate Caremerge are launching a new partnership that promises to help make care coordination easier to achieve.
- The University of Texas at Arlington, a CAST University Member, and LeadingAge Member Lakewood Village Senior Living Community are working on an exciting new project to promote aging in place.
We were also pleased this month to see our members recognized for their expertise and innovative practices. Intel featured CAST Patron Front Porch in one of its case studies. And a number of CAST Business Associates shared tips for integrating electronic medical record and billing systems with McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
Finally, don’t miss the achievements that are landing CAST Business Associates in the media. We have good news to share about MatrixCare, BAM Labs, Touchtown, and Keystone Technologies.
I hope you enjoy these and other articles in this issue of Tech Time. Please contact me with any comments or questions.