The on-demand car service has announced a pilot program in conjunction with the University of Southern California Center for Body Computing to study and connect senior citizens with transportation.

In collaboration with UnitedHealthcare, the AARP Foundation is providing a $1 million grant to the Keck Medicine of USC to test the impact of providing free Lyft rides on the health of elderly USC patients and other senior citizens within the greater Los Angeles area.

The program will also outfit riders with wearable devices to track behavior patterns and offer a concierge-style phone number participants can call for pickups, in case they’re uncomfortable with smartphones.

The goal is to study older populations and learn how to build new products and services to meet their needs, says Dr. Leslie Saxon, executive director of the USC Center for Body Computing. Several million senior citizens miss medical appointments each year due to a lack of accessible and affordable transportation, with no-show rates hovering at 30% for sub-specialty doctor appointments, according to a recent study.

Not to mention that without adequate socialization opportunities, seniors are more prone to depression, isolation, and declining health.

“It’s not just missing doctors’ appointments,” Saxon tells Fast Company. “What really determines survival in an aging population is socialization–it’s any trip out of the house, and how active you are. That is the No. 1 determinant of basically who lives and who dies.”