Most older adults want what we all would want: to live with dignity, autonomy, safety, and connection in the place they call home.
That aspiration is often described as “ageing in place.” But I prefer the phrase “ageing in the right place,” because the goal should not simply be to remain at home at all costs. The goal should be to ensure that older adults are supported in the place that best meets their needs, respects their wishes, and allows them to live as well and as safely as possible.
For many people, that place is their own home. But making that possible is not as simple as installing a device, downloading an app, or assuming that family caregivers can fill every gap. Aging at home safely requires planning, relationships, information, services, and increasingly, the thoughtful use of technology.
The keyword is thoughtful.
Across Canada, we are seeing rapid growth in technologies designed to support older adults living at home and in the community. Personal emergency response systems can support summoning help after a fall or during a medical emergency. GPS-enabled devices can help locate someone who becomes disoriented or lost. Fall detection systems, smart home sensors, and connected care platforms can provide families with information about their loved one and a sense that help is closer at hand than it once was.
These technologies can be enormously helpful. For some older adults and their caregivers, they can provide reassurance, independence, and faster access to help when something goes wrong. But we also need to ask harder questions.
Do these technologies actually reduce harm in real-world settings? Are people using them consistently over time? Do they support independence, or do they create a feeling of being monitored or watched? Do they reduce caregiver strain, or simply shift the burden of caregiving in new directions that ironically increase it? Are they designed around the actual needs of older adults, or around the assumptions of the companies that design and sell them, and the families that often buy and implement them?
These questions matter because the use of technology is never neutral in the lives of older adults. It can preserve dignity, but it can also erode it. It can support autonomy, but it can also create new forms of dependency. It can help families respond quickly, but it can also create false confidence if people assume that a device alone is a complete safety plan.
That is why conversations like MedicAlert’s Health Hour Live are so important. Families are not asking abstract questions. They are asking practical, urgent ones: How do I know when my parent needs more help? What should I do if someone is falling more often? What happens if a person living with dementia leaves home and cannot find their way back? How can someone living alone, or in a rural area, get help quickly? How do we balance safety with privacy, dignity, and independence?
Those are the questions that should guide the future development of technologies to support ageing well and they currently guide my research in this area.
One of the most common mistakes we make is treating technology as the solution rather than as one part of a broader support system.
A personal emergency response device may help summon assistance, but it cannot replace a fall prevention plan, medication review, home safety assessment, or access to appropriate primary and specialist care. A GPS device may help locate someone who is lost, but it does not replace the need to understand why a person is becoming disoriented, what triggers unsafe wandering, and what supports are needed for the person and their caregiver. A fall detection system may provide reassurance, but it cannot help if the person does not wear it, does not trust it, or does not understand how it works.
The best technology is not necessarily the most sophisticated or the latest technology. It is the technology that fits into the daily life of the person using it while supporting their dignity, safety and independence; supports the caregiver without overwhelming them; and connects to a real and helpful response when help is needed.
That means both older persons and their families should ask practical questions before adopting any technology:
These questions are not barriers to innovation. They are the foundation of responsible innovation.
For years, many technologies for older adults have entered the market faster than the evidence base around them has developed. Companies can tell us what their products are designed to do. They can describe their features, response times, connectivity, and specifications. But older adults and families need more than product claims.
They need to know how these technologies perform in real homes, over time, with real people whose needs may change.
That is where MedicAlert’s emerging work with the National Institute on Ageing is particularly important.
MedicAlert has a long-standing relationship with Canadians who live with chronic health conditions, cognitive changes, mobility challenges, and complex care needs. Through Naviva, its connected personal emergency response solution, MedicAlert is also beginning to deploy the kinds of technologies that many families are considering as part of an ageing-in-the-right-place plan.
What makes this work different is MedicAlert’s willingness to ask not only whether the technology can be offered, but whether it is worthy of the trust people place in it.
That is a higher standard.
Together, MedicAlert and the National Institute on Ageing are shaping a research agenda that can help answer some of the most important unanswered questions in this field. How do people experience technologies like personal emergency response systems, GPS supports, and fall detection over time? Do these technologies reduce caregiver burden, or do they create new responsibilities? What makes someone adopt and continue using a device? When do people stop using it, and why? How do we ensure consent, privacy, and data governance are handled responsibly, especially when a person’s capacity may change over time?
These are not questions that can be answered by a brochure or a sales pitch. They require longitudinal, real-world research. They require listening to older adults and caregivers. They require looking not only at what people say about technology, but also at how they actually use it over time.
This is where non-profit, community-anchored research can make an important contribution. Commercial providers have a role to play in innovation, but the evidence guiding older adults and families should not depend only on research generated by the companies that sell the products. We need independent, ethical, transparent research that begins with the dignity and safety of older adults.
As more Canadians age at home, digitally-enabled care will become an increasingly important part of everyday life. The question is not whether technology will be used. It already is. The question is whether it will be used well.
Used well, technology can help older adults remain connected to help, give caregivers greater peace of mind, and provide responders with better information in critical moments. Used poorly, it can create confusion, false reassurance, privacy concerns, and additional burden for both older persons and their families, who are already under pressure.
The future of aging technology should be guided by five principles.
First, technology must support autonomy. Older adults should be active participants in decisions about the tools they use and even how they are developed, not passive recipients of monitoring.
Second, technology must protect dignity. Safety should not come at the cost of making people feel surveilled, diminished, or controlled.
Third, technology must be usable in real life. A device that is not worn, charged, trusted, or understood will not protect anyone.
Fourth, technology must connect to a response. Detection is only useful if someone knows what to do next.
Fifth, technology must be evaluated independently and transparently. Families deserve evidence and information they can trust.
This is the promise of the work now being shaped by MedicAlert and the National Institute on Ageing. It is not simply about testing devices. It is about asking what responsible digital care should look like in the lives of older adults and their caregivers.
Ageing in the right place requires more than technology. But the right technology, used in the right way, supported by the right evidence and the right values, can help more people live with confidence, dignity, and safety.
That is the standard we should set.
And it is the standard that older adults and their families deserve.
Are you interested about what it actually takes to age at home successfully? Dr. Samir Sinha and MedicAlert CEO, Leslie McGill, break down the practical technologies that make it possible. Watch the full webinar →