While attending the Aging2.0 Conference in San Francisco, California, I had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Johnston, co-founder of Aging2.0.

By Steve Moran

While attending the Aging2.0 Conference in San Francisco, California, I had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Johnston, co-founder of Aging2.0, a global innovation platform for aging and senior care; founder of Fordcastle, an innovation consultancy; and member of the Future Agenda, the world’s largest open foresight initiative.

Stephen explains, “This year the conference has been pretty different because we at Aging2.0 announced quite a big strategic shift. If you think about Aging2.0, the journey since Katy and I got started back in 2012, it’s been bringing the community together and getting excited about technology. we are part of this bigger trend of technology and aging. It’s been growing and growing. And we sort of asked ourselves, how do we really take this to the next level in terms of impact? It’s not really just about growing a community and having more people. It’s fantastic to see more interest and more energy. It’s just a lot more – a lot more startups, a lot more little companies, a lot more big companies, a lot more interest from the providers.

“We had a lot of conversation this year and we came up with these 8 Grand Challenges, which are really the why – why we at Aging2.0 get up in the morning and go to work, and we all work long hours because it’s a passion project. And essentially we are solving these challenges.”

The 8 Grand Challenges

  1. Engagement & Purpose – Social connection, building a culture, creating purpose and meaning in people’s lives

  2. Financial Wellness – How can we afford long-term care? Identifying financial fraud and abuse, financial planning, making sure the system works

  3. Daily Living & Lifestyle – The necessary basics: keeping people independent, making sure homes are designed better, nutrition, hygiene, ADLs, allowing people to live life on their terms

  4. Mobility & Movement – Exoskeletons to help people stay active, community mobility, public transport, making sure people can stay connected within the community

  5. Caregiving – Helping people get trained and educated, support caregivers, how to harness the power of the family caregiver, remote care delivery

  6. Brain Health – Depression, behavioral health, dementia, prediction, prevention, treatment

  7. Care Coordination – Population health management, chronic care management, telehealth, wearables

  8. End of Life – How to have those conversations, collaborative technology, innovations in this very sensitive and powerful stage of life

For more information about the 8 Grand Challenges and to hear more from Stephen Johnston, you can watch the full video below.