Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, writes for Quartz about ways that new technologies can be used to make aging more fun for today’s seniors. “By investing in such uncharted aspects of the longevity economy now, we may pave the way for ourselves to live longer, better—and perhaps with a smile,” writes Coughlin.
Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, writes for Barron’s about how senior citizens are becoming an increasingly dominant consumer market. “Older consumers will no longer put up with companies that address only basic physiological or safety needs,” writes Coughlin. “New demands in the older market are arising from higher-level drives, such as goals, aspirations, aesthetic preferences, social needs, and talents.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, writes that smart technologies and on-demand services could allow seniors to stay in their own homes. Coughlin notes that the freedom the connected home provides for choosing services, “is an enormous benefit not only for older adults’ wallets, but for their own sense of independence and personal control.”
An MIT AgeLab survey finds that many Americans have unrealistic expectations for retirement, writes Richard Eisenberg for Forbes. Research scientist Chaiwoo Lee suggests that financial advisers use the survey results to “create messages and images and materials for potential clients and provide clients with a better education about life after career.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, and research associate Lucas Yoquinto write that companies are increasingly designing aesthetically-pleasing and user-friendly technology for the elderly. “As the focus on older consumers’ preferences goes beyond the development of better products to the creation of new product categories, the experience of later life may improve substantially,” they explain.
CNBC reporter Lorie Konish speaks with Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, about some key questions around autonomous vehicles for retirees. “The older people who can't drive — whether it is a cognition issue, health issue, physical disability issue — who gets them in the car?” says Coughlin. “And if your mom’s not cognitively well enough to drive, does she ride in the robot car by herself?”
In an article for Forbes, AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin explores how the advent of smart devices and the sharing economy could transform the senior housing industry. “Senior housing properties could become centers of services enabling aging in place in the home,” argues Coughlin, “forming a virtual pipeline to senior housing residences from assisted living to skilled nursing.”
Local government and business leaders think Boston could be a hub for the emerging “age-tech” industry, reports Robert Weisman for The Boston Globe. “We see this as a chance to make us a living laboratory and to bring the culture of innovation” to the problems of aging, says Joe Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab.
Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the difficulties faced by the aging population when it comes to living safely and independently. “Successful aging is less about eating right, daily exercise, or saving for retirement than having a robust circle of family and friends,” writes Coughlin.
Prof. Amy Finkelstein speaks with WBUR’s Carey Goldberg about her study showing only a small amount of Medicare spending goes end-of-life care. Finkelstein explains, “there is very little Medicare spending on people with high probability of dying. And part of that is just that it's very, very hard to predict who is going to die.”
STAT reporter Orly Nadell Farber writes about a new study by Prof. Amy Finkelstein that challenges the widely held assumption that a large portion of Medicare spending goes towards end-of-life care. “We spend money on sick people — some of them die, some of them recover,” says Finkelstein. “Maybe some recover, in part, because of what we spent on them.”
Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, writes for Forbes that some new technologies will make caring for aging parents easier for millennials. Coughlin explains that these tools, “can decrease the friction of aging and providing care, increase connectivity within the home, and make the atomic tasks of care easier, convenient and lessen the coming caregiver crunch.”
Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about challenges facing the children of Baby Boomers, who will eventually need to care for their parents. “[W]hile the Baby Boomers may be aging, they are far from done,” writes Coughlin. “It may be our best gift to our children to develop care plans, options, savings, and innovations today to care for us tomorrow.”
In an article for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, discusses the results of a study on generational attitudes about the environment. While Millennials often believe their older peers committed “unforgivable environmental sins over past decades,” Coughlin argues the data also show that older adults “might just be the catalyst and be the best hope we have for a more sustainable society in the coming century.”
In his book The Longevity Economy, MIT AgeLab director Joseph Coughlin notes that on the rare occasion that aging is discussed, views of the elderly are mostly wrong. “The main point that Coughlin is making,” writes Joshua Kim for Inside Higher Ed, is that, “[r]ather than years of decline, life after 65 (or 75 or even 85) can be full of possibility, exploration, and learning.”