Healthy aging 2.0: The power of new media and technology

This presentation will explore and discuss technology and social networking use among older adults and examine Healthy Aging 2.0 applications. Twenty-first century information and communications technology offer public health practitioners the unique opportunity to empower, engage, and educate older adults to actively become an integral part of their own health care. Various remote medical innovations have demonstrated their viability as tools which help monitor illness and relieve fiscal strains on our already overburdened health care system. An increasing number of older adults are going online to seek information to improve their health. Web 2.0 application tools are showing promising results in keeping people connected and informed. The use of telemedicine and telemonitoring to empower social networking among an aging population may well be the wave of the future in health care. Revolutionary technological advances and countless new tools are available to assist in this highly participatory form of healthy aging. New applications using smartphones, video conferencing equipment, and web-based telecommunication technologies are quickly bridging geographical gaps between patients and health care professionals. Mobile healthy aging applications are useful to prevent against isolation and neglect and improve overall patient communication. The systems integration opportunities of social networking using m-health technologies under the umbrella of “Healthy Aging 2.0” should be widely investigated to encourage more active disease management among older adults. The effective use of these participatory applications have the potential to augment mental, social, and physical well-being among older adults.