Digital Technologies for the Healthy Ageing in COVID-19

Historically, in Feb of 2016, the First United Nations CSocD side event on “Smart Aging” co-sponsored by Waseda University, UN CSocD and the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as well as International Academy of CIO and NGO Committee on Ageing was held at the UN Headquarters in New York, and then in 2018, the Second UN CSocD side event was held co-sponsored by the above same Institutions on issues of an Aging Society-“Promotion of Employment of the ageing through Digital ICT Utilization”, In 2020, the 3rd UNCSD side event by the above same group was organized on the title of “From Smart Home to Smart City” co-sponsored by the same Institutions as above was held, and it received a very high reputation worldwide. 

In Feb. of 2021 the role of digital technologies is reconsidered in the spread of the new coronavirus infection. Under these circumstances, we have discussed the role of digital technology toward the achievement of SDGs in pursuit of the well-being of all people including the ageing, who have a large digital and information gap. For the 17 items of SDGs solution such as aging and infectious disease problems, the world is paying attention to how it can contribute to the realization of a new society with the new normal by the emergence of advanced technologies such as IoT, Big data, and AI. In addition, seminar participants have discussed the ever-evolving field of information and communications and the optimal digital society while obtaining lessons from history, and prepare proposals on the future prospects of the digital field in the future. 

Major subjects and focus points for discussion:

• What can Digital Technology be beneficial for aging society? 
• Why should Innovation put high priority for SDGs? 
• How will AI accelerate social inclusion? 
• Which stakeholders with technology will support to overcome COVID-19 

Program and Agenda:

1. As a moderator, Prof. Emeritus Toshio Obi, Waseda Univ. ex-chair OECD project on Digital Ageing, ex-Special Envoy of ITU Secretary General for Academia, announced the kick off the event at 8:30 of Feb.12.Dr Obi mentioned that this is the 4^th side event since 2016 and many experts around world have contributed one topics for 4 years. 

2. Opening Remark was delivered by Mr. Eiji Makiguchi, Director General of MIC (Japan) ．He made remarkable opening remark on behalf of Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as one of co-sponsoring organizations. He mentioned that digital technologies for ageing society is very important subject in Japan since Japan is the No.1 Super ageing nation in the world. 

3. There were six speakers. The first speaker was Prof. Dr. Naoko Iwasaki, Waseda Univ.,Chair, APEC project on Technologies for Healthy Ageing ,and Vice President, International Academy of CIO. She is the top academia and advisers to various government agencies on this subject. She presented “Global Challenge for the Human Centric Ageing Society ~Lessons learned from the Nursing care at Home in Japan” which was her famous research theme. 

4. 2^nd speaker was Mr. Stephen Ezell, Vice President, IT　Innovation Foundation (USA). His ITIF is the top Think tank in the field of ICT policy in the world. His topic was “Usage of Digital Technologies for the Healthy Aging in COVID-19”. He made several recommendations in his speech. 

5. Next speaker was Prof. Dr. Suhono Supangkat, Director, Smart City and Community Innovation　Center, Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia). Also, Director of Smart Cities and Community Innovation Center as one of ITB Center of Excellence as well as president, Smart Indonesia Initiatives Association. Title of his presentation was “Innovative Technology for Smart Cities in Indonesia”. 

6. Mrs. Airada. Luangvilai, Senior Executive Vice President, Digital Government Development Agency (Thailand) described the case study of Thai government on the concerned issue. 

7. Prof. Dr. Theng Yin Leng, Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore)　made the important presentation to give the message by the topic on “COVID-19 CHALLENGE: Feasibility study to investigate contactless health coaching for older adults”. She emphasized the important role of e-entertainment activities for older persons. 

8. Last speaker, Prof. Dr. Yang Fengchun, Dean, Peking University (China) briefed us the current situation on China’s ageing society with relevant figures which indicated the issues based on the fact that China had the biggest population ageing. 

9. After presentations, We invited 2 distinguished Commentators from both US and Russia. One is Prof. J.P. Auffret, President, International Academy of CIO, George Mason University (USA). Another is Dr. Alexander Ryjov, Professor, RANEPA (Russia). They have made excellent summaries of the session and made some questions to speakers 

10. After comments, there are some time for Question and Answer, then Discussion among participants. 

11. Finally, Closing remark by Dr. Toshio Obi, moderator was made with the following list of recommendations and he ended the session with deep appreciation to all participants. 

Recommendations:

• Facilitate interoperable health data flows among nations. 
• Ensure citizens have access to the Internet; prioritize ICT infrastructure. 
• Recognize that digital literacy is a critical aspect of technology uptake. 
• Adopt innovative regulatory approach to approving medical devices using novel technologies like AI. 
• Engage with the WHO’s Digital and Assistive Technologies for Aging (DATA) initiative 
• Using emerging digital technologies, we need to train home care leaders annually through video-on-demand lectures and to collect and innovate big data of families and long-term care and utilize them in the silver market by AI. 
• The United Nations should take the initiative to provide a place for long-term care knowledge and education by utilizing the emerging technologies for long-term care leaders (family members) toward the future when almost 2/3 of the elderly will be home-based. 
• The United Nations should be a leader for new framework for nursing care project to increase the ageing’s Quality of Life (QoL) with NGOs under SDGs. 
• Digital Technologies can promote  Smart life,　Health、 Human rights of Older Persons　who are not [Burden & Cost],but[Asset & Educator] 
• [World Summit on Digital Silver Society] under SDGs be held by UN & Civil society 

Co-organizers: 

Waseda University 
Japanese Government ( Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication /Permanent　Mission of Japan) 
International Academy of CIO 
NGO Committee on Ageing 
UN DESA 

Photos:

All speakers and commentators in the session 

Urban social problems in Indonesia presented by Prof. Suhono, President of Indonesia Smart city Association