The "Can Technology Make Ageing Cheaper and Better?" seminar by Dr Richard G. Caro was held on the 2 May 2017. This event was hosted jointly by MARC and Hallmark Ageing Research Initiative and provided an opportunity for experts, researchers, and workers in the fields of technology and ageing to come together to hear Dr Caro’s views on how technology has a role as people age.

Dr Caro is the CEO and co-founder of Tech-enhanced Life, a Public Benefit corporation with the mission of improving the quality of life of older adults and their families. Dr Caro started his career as a researcher at Stanford University and then spent a number of years developing novel medical products (such as the world's first LASIK device for changing the shape of your eyes) at a series of start-ups in Boston and Silicon Valley. Dr Caro received a B.Sc. (Hons) degree from Melbourne University and a D.Phil. in experimental physics from Oxford University — where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

While much of the western world worries about the economic and human costs of an ageing population, Dr Caro argues that there is room for optimism and a “silver lining”, and that by harnessing the power of technology and the untapped wisdom of the older adult population we can improve the quality of life as we age, expand the capabilities of caregivers, and even make the costs associated with care and services for older people less.

Tech-enhanced Life aims to improve the quality of life of older people and their families, and have started to do this by collaborating with groups of older people. Dr Caro spoke about an experimental sharing, ideation, and evaluation community called the Longevity Explorers — made up of entrepreneurial older adults in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The Longevity Explorers are a collaborative community that identify, invent, trial, review, and evaluate better solutions and products to overcome the challenges that come with growing older. The Longevity Explorers not only add value to the community by utilising their expertise and life experience but are also able to stay engaged and intellectually challenged.

For more information on Dr Caro’s work, Tech-enhanced Life, and the Longevity Explorers please visit https://www.techenhancedlife.com or  https://twitter.com/richardgcaro

Above (L-R): Jenny Waycott - Lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Systems, Hallmark Ageing Research Initiative; Ruth Williams - Academic Convenor of Hallmark Ageing Research Initiative; Dr Richard G. Caro – CEO and co-founder of Tech-enhanced Life;  Briony Dow – Director of the National Ageing Research Institute and Associate Professor, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne; Frances Batchelor - MARC Program Manager and Director Health Promotion, National Ageing Research Institute.