Mapping User Needs to Smartphone Services for Persons with Chronic Disease

Assistive technology is becoming increasingly prevalent within today’s ageing society to help improve mobility, communication and learning capabilities for persons who have disabilities, chronic diseases and age related impairments. The effect of using such technology promotes a level of independence in addition to improving social awareness and interactions [1]. As trends in life expectancy increase, the number of age related impairments and chronic disease within the elderly population will also rise. While for some of these conditions there is no cure, with the help of assistive technology, diseases such as Alzheimer’s for example may be effectively managed. Assistive technology within this domain can be used to support activities such as medication reminders, picture dialing phones and clocks to support day/night orientation. This paper presents an overview of the challenges associated with those suffering from chronic disease, in particular Alzheimer’s disease and defines the methodology of how current advances in mobile phone technology and their associated services may be used to alleviate some of the issues experienced by chronic disease patients.