City4Age creates an innovative framework that can be deployed by European cities – ICT-enhanced early detection of risk related to frailty and MCI, as well as ICT enhanced intervention that can help the elderly population to improve their daily life and also promote positive behaviour changes. It is a European project funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission that will activate urban communities to facilitate the role of social/health services and of families in dealing with mild cognitive impairments (MCI) and frailty in the elderly population.

Cities already collect large amounts of data about citizens like usage of public transport, services and shopping. This information can be used to detect behavioural changes that can help to identify segments of the population potentially at risk. Individuals and their environments will be equipped with specific sensors to gather information in an unobtrusive way. The detection will be performed by sophisticated detection algorithms to suggest way to prevent risks or to alert those providing care that action is required.

The challenge is to demonstrate that cities play a pivotal role in the early detection of (MCI and frailty) risks and subsequent interventions. The core idea is that “smart cities” can collect data in an unobtrusive way about individual behaviours. This data can be used in two ways:
… to identify segments of the population potentially at risk
…to closely monitor individuals already identified as specifically in need of close monitoring
In the latter case, negative changes of behaviours can be detected, prompting individualized intervention.

City4Age provides cities with the necessary resources to design interventions countering risks related to Frailty and MCI in ageing citizens thus improving resilience at the psychological, social, cultural, and physical level. Specifically City4age augments “traditional” clinical health-related data and socio-economic data with sensor data via wearable devices, sensors and services provided by smart cities and embedded, sensors at home and in local communities. Data is collected using smartphones and mobile devices.