A new TechSAge article was published in the Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences in a special issue on Novel Engineering Approaches to Enhance Mobility in Older Adults. The paper, by Katherine Hsieh, Lingjun Chen, and Jacob Sosnoff, reviews the evidence for using mobile technology, like smart phones and tablets, for personalized fall risk assessment and prevention for older adults. The article highlights lessons learned from current research, including evaluations of 7 falls risk applications, and discusses future directions for how mobile technology could be optimized to be an effective community-based tool for falls risk assessment and prevention. Full article available upon request.

Husna Hussaini is a Sociology and Molecular and Cellular Biology student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is a research assistant at the Human Factors and Aging Lab. Husna supports the TechSAge voice-activated digital assistants research and development projects, playing a key role in developing instructional materials to support older adult users in setting up and using these devices. Based on her experience working on this project, Husna is currently writing an Honors Thesis that seeks to understand the knowledge that older adults possess regarding digital home assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa, and their privacy and security while using them. Husna’s research interests are focused on the potential of technology to transform healthcare literacy, health self-management, and access to care. In her free time, Husna enjoys playing the clarinet, an instrument she has played for 10 years.