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Anthea Tinker, 7th Grandmaster of the International Society for Gerontechnology (ISG), has a passion for technology and older people, while stressing, for instance, housing for Ageing-in-Place as early as 1976. Currently in her eighties she is still active in international projects. The breadth and depth of her passion is shown in this issue of Gerontechnology journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In September 2008, under the French Presidency of the European Union and with the support of the Polish Minister of Health, a European Summit on Age-Related Disease was organised in Wroclaw (Poland). At this meeting, European politicians, gerontologists and geriatricians gathered to discuss a common approach to future challenges related to age-related disease. Politicians and decision-makers from the European Union and Ministers of Health and their deputies from many European countries raised the problems and difficulties to be tackled in a growing population with a high burden of disease, and asked scientists to write a consensus document with recommendations for future actions and decisions. Scientists and clinicians worked in parallel in three different groups, on health promotion and preventive actions, basic research in age-related disease, and clinical aspects of disease in older people. Beforehand, the format of the paper with recommendations was discussed, and it was finally agreed that, for a better understanding by decision-makers, it would be divided in two different columns: one with facts that were considered settled and agreed by most experts (under the heading We know), and a second with recommendations related to each fact We recommend). No limit on the number of topics to be discussed was settled. After careful and detailed discussion in each group, which in most cases included the exact wording of each statement, chairpersons presented the results in a plenary session, and new input from all participants was received, until each of the statements and recommendations were accepted by a large majority. Areas with no consensus were excluded from the document. Immediately after the Summit, the chairpersons sent the document both to the main authors and to a list of experts (see footnote) who had made presentations at the summit and agreed to review and critically comment on the final document, which is presented below. As regards the scientific aspects of the planning of the Summit, several organisations, under the leadership of the EUGMS, were asked both to review the program and to suggest names of speakers and participants. After the Summit, the Boards of these organizations (European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS), International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics-European Region (IAGGER), European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry (EAGP), International Society of Gerontechnology (ISG) and International Society for the Study of the Aging Male (ISSAM) agreed to consider the document as an official paper, and help with its dissemination. The name Silver Paper was used, recalling the grey or silvery hair of our older citizens, as an easy reference. It has been sent officially to several bodies of the European Union and to Health Ministers of most European countries; and will be published in other languages in local journals. Its declared intention is to foster changes in policies which may, in the future, reduce the burden of disease in old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the biological research conducted which focuses on ageing, diseases affecting older people and treatment developed at the European Summit on Age Related Disease held in Wroclaw, Poland on September 11-13, 2008. It reveals that failure of organs and tissues are the common diseases affecting older people and a multidisciplinary and integrated approach is essential in the diagnosis and treatment of age-related diseases. In addition, the different treatment available for the prevention of diseases among older people is also discussed.

A videophone system was used to link cancer patients, undergoing chemotherapy at home, with care providers in the Home Healthcare Facility at the University Hospital Centre of Grenoble. The participant patients expressed their satisfaction both with the use and the technical quality of the system. Improvement was observed in the Hospitalisation Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), SF36 Health Survey Questionnaire and Palliative care Outpatient Scale (POS) scores during and at the end of the experiment. The results indicated that the use of videophones was both feasible and satisfactory, and that they may have a positive effect on the cancer patient's quality of life at home. Further studies are necessary to prove this final observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is essential to have a user-friendly, noninvasive bedside procedure at our disposal in order to study swallowing and swallowing disorders in the elderly in view of the frailty of this age group. In the present work, respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) is proposed as an appropriate clinical tool for such studies. An automated process for the detection of swallowing is used involving the derivative of the respiratory volume signal. The accuracy of the automated detection is given by the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and is found to be greater than 0.9. At the optimal threshold, RIP constitutes a reliable and objective bedside clinical tool for studying swallowing in the elderly, as well as being user-friendly and noninvasive. In addition, RIP can be used to monitor swallowing in order to analyze swallowing disorders and put in place medical supervision of swallowing for individuals who might aspirate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deglutition disorders can occur at any age but are especially prevalent in the elderly. The resulting morbidity and mortality are being recognized as major geriatric health issues, Because of difficulties in studying swallowing in the frail elderly, a new, non-invasive, user-friendly, bedside technique has been developed. Ideally suited to such patients, this tool, an intermediary between purely instrumental and clinical methods, combines respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) and the computer to detect swallowing automatically, Based on an automated analysis of the airflow estimated by the RIP-derived signal, this new tool was evaluated according to its capacity to detect clinical swallowing from among the 1643 automatically detected respiratory events, This evaluation used contingency tables and Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves, Results were all significant (χ2(1,n=1643)>100, p<0.01). Considering its high accuracy in detecting swallowing (area under the ROC curve greater than 0.9), this system would be proposed to study deglutition and then deglutition disorders in the frail elderly, to set up medical supervision and to evaluate the efficiency of a swallowing disorder remedial therapeutic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The efficacy of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis has not been established, to our knowledge, in elderly patients hospitalized in subacute care facilities. Objectives: To describe risk factors and physician practices in the prevention of venous thromboembolism and to estimate the prevalence of deep vein thrombosis. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in the subacute care departments of 36 French hospitals. The study population included 852 inpatients older than 64 years. Systematic ultrasound examination was performed by angiologists. Results: Of the 852 inpatients, 178 (20.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 18.2%-23.8%) had 3 or more risk factors other than age, while 144 patients (16.9%; 95% CI, 14.4%-19.6%) had none. The rate of prophylactic anticoagulant treatment was 56.1%, ranging from 20.0% to 86.9%, depending on the department. In multivariate analysis, prophylaxis use was associated with acute immobilization (odds ratio [OR], 4.17; 95% CI, 2.48-7.01), chronic immobilization (OR, 3.19; 95% CI, 2.22-4.60), major surgical procedure (OR, 6.81; 95% CI, 4.26-10.88), and congestive heart failure (OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.02-2.67). Prophylaxis use was low in patients who had cancer (OR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.29-0.84) or myocardial infarction (OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.14-1.00). It was not significantly associated with paralytic stroke or history of venous thromboembolism. Deep vein thrombosis was detected in 135 patients (15.8%; 95% CI, 13.4%-18.5%): 50 (5.9%; 95% CI, 4.4%-7.7%) had proximal vein thrombosis and 85 (10.0%; 95% CI, 8.0%-12.2%) had calf vein thrombosis. Conclusions: The prevalence of deep venous thrombosis is high in these patients, despite wide use of prophylaxis. Further prospective studies assessing the clinical benefit of extended duration prophylaxis are needed in elderly patients hospitalized in subacute care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: To compare the epidemiological and microbiological characteristics of bloodstream infection (BSI) between the young old (65–75), old (76–85), and old old (>85). DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Forty-six hospitals in southeast France. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand seven hundred forty patients aged 65 and older with BSI, seen between January 1 and December 31, 1998. MEASUREMENTS: Epidemiological and microbiological data and outcome. RESULTS: Community-acquired BSIs (CABSIs) were significantly more frequent in the old old, but microbiological data were similar to those in the young-old group. Conversely, microbiological data were significantly different for nosocomial BSIs (NSBIs). Escherichia coli was the main pathogen in the old old and Staphylococcus aureus in the young old. Mortality was independently associated with the presence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus in NSBI and CABSI. CONCLUSIONS: The differences in NBSI are important in serious infectious diseases and often require empirical antibiotic therapy. Age is also a risk factor but only for CABSI and suggests that the old-old patients represent a frail population in the community. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings and analyze predisposing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although elderly people are one of the major target groups for telemedicine applications, they remain under-represented in studies of teleconsultation. Videolinks appear to be easily used by many elderly people as a means of communicating with health-care staff, including psychologists and doctors. To date, studies of psychometric teleconsultation have been confined to screening tests, or have used very small numbers of patients. There is a need to examine the reliability of more complex psychometric batteries and to use larger samples of older people. Some recommendations for conducting clinical interviews and psychometric tests are presented, based on clinical experience and a review of the literature. The importance of ergonomic considerations, patient comfort and professional preparation are explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a study of modelling and the first steps of an experiment of a smart room for hospitalised elderly people. The system aims at detecting falls and sicknesses, and implements four main functions: perception of patient and environment through sensors, reasoning from perceived events and patient clinical findings, action by way of alarm triggering and message passing to medical staff, and adaptation to various patient profiles, sensor layouts, house fixtures and architecture. It includes a physical multisensory device located in the patient’s room, and a multi-agent system for fall detection and alarm triggering. This system encompasses a perception agent, and a reasoning agent. The latter has two complementary capacities implemented by sub-agents: deduction of type of alarm from incoming events, and knowledge induction from recorded events. The system has been tested with a few patients in real clinical situation, and the first experiment provides encouraging results which are described in a precise manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the case study on videoconferencing and the hard of hearing. The issue of communication during videoconferencing is given importance with the high prevalence of deafness in the elderly. Participants are discouraged to alter equipment settings that may lead to interview disruption and technical difficulties.

Presents a commentary on the history of geriatric medicine. Characteristics of geriatric medicine; History of geriatric medicine in France; Birth of geriatric medicine in France; Medical personalities that contributed in the development of geriatric medicine in France.