So it goes, the International Society for Gerontechnology (ISG)holds its 15th World Conference ISG 2026 in Vancouver from March 26 – 29, 2026. Continuing a vision, I say because from when I first learned of this professional body in 2018 the ISG presented a statement that has never strayed: “toward the realization of a society fully served by technology that is as accessible to ageing people as it is to people in younger generations.”
Of course, as nature will have it, younger people are ageing too and the continuing development of technologies that support older people today will be in a different place even in a few years from now as rising age demographic curves suggest more potential need to meet market demand. Forty years ago, before marketing minds came up with the term AgeTech, the academic fields of gerontology and technology merged and so first came the term gerontechnology.
As I recounted in my Feb.2018 blog post – 30 Years of Gerontechnology: Origins of an Innovation Journey – it was Jan Graafmans from the Netherlands who in 1988 originated that term gerontechnology, and the ISG’s definition of the purpose of this field satisfies me, that being: “Designing technology and environment for independent living and social participation of older persons in good health, comfort and safety.”
In a nod to all this 40-plus year history, AgeTech market thought leader Keren Etkin formed her business named TheGerontechnologistin 2017. Her dialogue has significantly brought forward thinking insights, while in the process demystified the fusion of technology and ageing in easy to understand language. Yet behind the front-end AgeTech market watch lies the ISG, an academic/ research professional development arm for those working in the field of gerontechnology.
Empowering Ageing with Gerontechnology is the theme of this ISG conference and in their scientific program there are (as you will find in this link) 15 symposia topic areas which demonstrate how wide ranging and focused in detail the elements of gerontechnology really are, addressing the issues of care and independent living; and to no surprise robotics and AI emerge.
One of the symposia I noted right away is titled Operationalizing Wellbeing Frameworks for Ageing Societies which taps in to an area I am quite familiar with – the role of international standards. May 2021 began my membership in the Standards Council of Canada mirror committee for theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) category ISO TC314Ageing Societies and two of our standards projects are focused here by the ISG:
ISO 25554 Guidelines for Promoting Wellbeing in Local Communities and Organizations
ISO 25557 Care for older persons at home and in residential care facilities
In a recent webinar from AGE-WELL– Canada’s technology and aging network, the focus was also on a standards-based approach to gerontechnology designs and innovation. What makes this ISG session seem timely to me, was one of the key observations made on the webinar, that Standardization work is not always keeping up with the speed of market innovations. Ouch, there’s a gap to address. And it is in a specific 2025 report – AgeTech for Aging in Place: A Standards-Based Approach to Inclusive, Secure, and Scalable Innovationfrom the CSA Group.
One concluding statement in this CSA report underscores much that has been in my thinking for some time now: “Ultimately, this report underscores the transformative potential of standards not only to guide the development of AgeTech but also to drive adoption and scalability.”
If you are one among the researchers, designers, developers, manufacturers, service providers, and policy makers that the ISG 2026 is reaching out to attend, then I would strongly suggest that Standardization be centered in your mind. I think the Gerontechnology pioneers would wish that.
