A/HRC/45/14/Add.1 disproportionately on women, and that better ways to support care work are needed so that women can extend their employment periods to improve income and pension benefits. 90. She strongly encourages the Government to further invest in geriatric medicine, since older persons have different patterns of disease presentation than younger adults and therefore respond differently to treatments and therapies. In addition, older persons frequently have complex social needs, related to their chronic medical conditions. Given the growing number of older patients, all medical professional training should pursue a biopsychosocial cultural approach, should cover the basics of gerontology and geriatrics, and address methods of interacting with older patients. It is essential to ensure that the different categories of health professionals, caregivers and community members are sensitized to the specific needs of older persons and receive adequate training in gerontology and geriatrics, and that policies and guidelines on the care of older persons are developed. 91. The Independent Expert noted the necessity to meet the increasing demand for palliative care as a matter of priority and stressed the importance of improving patient awareness, accessibility of services, and adequate training for health-care professionals. 92. The Independent Expert recognizes the challenges China faces in relation to dementia. She notes the limited awareness and low treatment rates of dementia and associated cognitive health conditions, and strongly encourages the Government to make dementia a public health priority. There is a need, inter alia, to integrate dementia services at the primary health-care level, in order to further build the capacity of doctors to diagnose and treat dementia. In addition, it is necessary to incorporate biopsychosocial cultural interventions for dementia and to provide training in dementia care. Activities in care homes also need to be improved and standardized in order to cater to the specific needs of persons suffering from dementia. 8. Automation, assistive and robotics technology 93. The Independent Expert expresses her appreciation to the Government for the opportunity provided during her visit to gain insights on activities and initiatives in the areas of robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other forms of automation and digital technologies in relation to ageing, care and health services. She notes the opportunities that technological progress offers for meeting the demands of old-age care in China. 94. With reference to the findings and recommendations of her thematic report, which examines the impact of assistive technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence and automation on the fundamental rights of older persons (A/HRC/36/48), the Independent Expert notes that the use of assistive and robotics technology raises a number of issues, ranging from ethics to accountability, lack of technology accuracy, data protection, data sovereignty and informed consent, in particular for older persons. These implications have to be studied in detail, and normative frameworks and appropriate mechanisms for the use of such technology may need to be designed to ensure that its utilization conforms to human rights principles. She stresses the need to ensure that the collection, retention and use of data, notably biometric data, is regulated in law and in practice. 95. The use of autonomous health-care robots requires a more general discussion on what actually constitutes care in practice, whether it is service delivery or whether it embeds certain values, and on how to ensure that older persons are not objectified. The Independent Expert recommends a human rights impact assessment of social and care robots, which is conducted with the involvement of older persons, including the “older old”, and takes into account the range of old-age diversity. Technically, the sample of older persons participating in such a human rights impact assessment needs 18