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“ENDEA”: a case study of multidisciplinary practice in the development of assisted technologies for older adults in Ireland

Cathy Bailey (Research Fellow in International Ageing, School of Health Community and Education Studies, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK)
Julie Doyle (Based at CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland)
Susan Squires (Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA)
Cliodhna ni Scanaill (Sensor Applications Engineer at Health Research & Innovation, Intel Labs, Intel Ireland, Leixlip, Ireland)
Chie Wei Fan (Based at the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) & Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland)
Cormac Sheehan (Department of General Practice, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland)
Clodagh Cunningham (Based at the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL), St James' Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.)
Ben Dromey (School of Art and Design at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland)

Journal of Assistive Technologies

ISSN: 1754-9450

Article publication date: 16 September 2011

546

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to discuss the authors' experiences of multidisciplinary practice in relation to developing home‐based assisted living technologies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on almost three years' experience of working within an ongoing, large, multi‐sited and multidisciplinary Irish national research programme: the Technology for Independent Living Centre. This involved industry and academic partners. Teams of clinicians, physical and social scientists, technologists, engineers, designers and ethnographers worked with older adults to design, test and deliver, home‐based technologies that focus on mitigating falls, keeping socially connected and maintaining or improving cognitive function. The authors' experiences and challenges are organised and presented through their retrospective team building model: ENDEA and through comparison with team building literature.

Findings

Learning outcomes and implications for technology focused multidisciplinary practice are offered. The paper concludes that a vital step in developing successful assisted living technologies with and for older adults is to spend resources on building effective, creative and committed multidisciplinary teams and practices.

Originality/value

The model, ENDEA, is proposed which is a blueprint for successful outcomes, through the management and delivery of multidisciplinary research.

Keywords

Citation

Bailey, C., Doyle, J., Squires, S., ni Scanaill, C., Wei Fan, C., Sheehan, C., Cunningham, C. and Dromey, B. (2011), "“ENDEA”: a case study of multidisciplinary practice in the development of assisted technologies for older adults in Ireland", Journal of Assistive Technologies, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 101-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/17549451111173451

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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