Apple accidentally shines a light on its technology ageism

Consider the Apple Watch fall detection age default.  Rant on. By now, and for most, no big deal, you may know that the Series 4 watch has fall detection. The setup includes your ‘emergency contacts’ acquired from your Medical ID, assuming you have Wrist Detection turned on.  Still with me? And perhaps you have also turned on the Health app (somewhere) and entered your birthdate.   Still with me?  Assuming that Apple knows your date of birth AND it is 65+, the default setting turns the Fall Detection feature on – you then have to turn it off.  Which, since it is set to call Emergency Services unless you Cancel, might, as it has been with Apple Watch emergency calls, be a problem. 

We do not know much about Apple’s public response to older adults.  I am sure they believe themselves to be age-agnostic, despite their oxymoronic growing focus on health (half of US health spending is for individuals age 55+). Consider if you like that the median age in the company is 31.  The Apple Watch leads competitors in the watch category (prior to the Series 4). Studying the Accessibilities pages (and the photos) – the focus on younger folk – suffice it to say that there are no stereotypical PERS users to be seen. Perhaps ageism (by the young, for the young) is at the core of their culture, which in our society would not be surprising.

So what’s with the 65+ default?  Did they believe the misleading 2015 CNN graphic about Apple's most generous buyers being old men? Translate: that would be men aged 65+. No joke, they are spending more on Apple products then other ages. How, uh, non-stereotypical of CNN’s headline writer.  Guess they did not read last year’s Stanford study basing old age on the statistical risk of dying within 1 year (answer: old for men = age 70+, 73 for women).  Let’s think about what it means for a technology to have a ‘default’ based on age. Imagine if there was a maximum speedometer setting on a car based on age in which the car throttles itself back to the speed limit.  After all, the dealer likely has seen the buyer’s driver’s license.

We get it – Apple is cool, the buyers should be cool.  Allow for the case that a Series 4 watch buyer is age 65+ AND worries about falling AND does not mind pinging the fire department AND actually noticed the default AND thought it okay to contact emergency services (aka 911) or skip through the wearer's list of emergency contacts, all of whom may be out on a Safari. But this ageist assumption that defaults to “ON” just may come as a surprise to the physically active 65-year-old who just wanted to have the very latest cool-looking fitness watch. Why? Because they feel young and fit. Tell that to those young whippersnappers at Apple.  Rant off.

category tags: 

wearables, smart watch

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/apple-accidentally-shines-light-its-technology-ageism

The Apple Watch and Fall Detection – What’s it Mean?

When Apple speaks, a puzzled market listens. When Apple announces, industries listen. Last week they announced two features of a new watch, ECG monitoring and fall detection. In July, Tim Cook apparently did not want to get into the world of FDA regulation. Well, that was then – or he just wasn’t saying. In this new watch, both the ECG feature and fall detection have received FDA clearance within 30 days of applying, startling some observers who noted that closer to 150 days was more typical for a medical device.  Healthcare observers are concerned that false positives from ECG readings could propel people unnecessarily to already-overloaded Emergency Rooms. To date, the Apple Watch may have been of greatest interest to 40 year old males. Interestingly, 70% of cases of atrial fibrillation are among the 65+ population.  Does Apple really want the 65+ population to buy an Apple watch?

Let’s talk about fall detection.  This was the option less discussed – and maybe for the target Apple audience, less relevant. But consider: according to Pew, half (or more) of the 50 million 65+ population owns a smartphone, and let’s assume nearly 50% of those are iPhone owners. Would they be interested in a fall detection feature? Would they need one – or would a family member encourage it? This feature too is also set to alert ‘emergency services’ if the user requests it (911, most likely) or if the wearer is non-responsive. There are a few standalone fall detectors on the market – here’s an example list with more on the way – but most connect the user to a call center.

The need to speak to someone. Perhaps, as with mobile PERS devices, an intermediate option speaking with the person who fell (like a call center) could save fire departments and the watch wearer from non-emergency trips – and just wanting to chat with someone. Assuming the population most likely to fall are older adults in the older age range, call me crazy, but I am betting they are not iPhone owners.  For those with other types of fall risks, maybe it makes sense to have a device that contacts family or others who have agreed to be contacted; or an app that contacts a call center, like FallCall; or a watch linked to a PERS call center.

Why Apple? So we know that Apple wants to get into 'healthcare' and we know healthcare is often used as a euphemism for aging – which apparently is an investment killer. But Apple is a trendsetter, not an investor – and investors wearing Apple watches follow the company with near-religious fervor – promoting and buying their stock, no matter how underwhelming the new phones might be. Whether the ECG offering is a breathless game-changer for Apple in the medical device market or comes with caveats, remains to be seen. As for its role as a mobile PERS device, Parks Associates expressed hope (PERS vendors may start selling) and caution about upfront price of $400 (too high). So let’s assume that mobile PERS is 20% of the total PERS market. Parks thinks the total PERS market comprises 4 million users; that seems low. But okay. If a user (or a reseller) wants to appear cool and has customers who are already Apple-cool and may be aging into fall risk and who can afford the device and will tolerate the small screen-size --  then maybe this is a viable sub-category of PERS. Apple then partners with a few monitoring centers, not just fire departments, when that happens. Count me as doubtful. 

category tags: 

Mobile PERS, wearables, smart watch

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/apple-watch-and-fall-detection-what-s-it-mean

Hyperlocal social networking – when Nextdoor matters most

It’s that awful time – the hurricane season.  The time when the national hurricane center repeated forecasts, repeated ad nauseum, are destined to frighten everyone, no matter how far from affected regions. The same broadcast can dwell on cones and paths, and almost as an aside, remind those in beach areas that the evacuation instructions are meant for them.  Reversing highway direction and talking constantly about evacuation sounds like a plan – but some observe that the distance required to evacuate to safety could be as much as 250-300 miles. So residents who will 'shelter in place' stock up on supplies and watch the 24-hour source of all fear – cable news, looking for guidance from Jim Cantore, that icon among storm trackers.

What people need most may be hyperlocal.  And that’s where Nextdoor has opened up a communication channel that has ripened into a neighborhood bulletin board in calm times, and an emergency beacon, street-by-street, during stormy weather.  With 137,000 neighborhood groups (at least), with rules enforcing a a ‘culture of civility',  facilitated by local moderators that step in when commentary is edgy. Imagine that – a culture of civility. Maybe 50 people are discussing a found dog – and who will adopt. Or they need help in setting up in home equipment or are selling furniture. The ads are also local – so realtors, stores, and service providers all can pay to reach those within their locale.

Back at the hurricane watch. Nextdoor neighborhoods in impacted areas have been ramping up.  Advisories, governor notices, evacuation sites and instructions are included in news sites and papers --  these will migrate onto Nextdoor as local neighborhood members incorporate new content. Even sizable cities like Peoria are on Nextdoor – so that city managers can get the word out.  Though to get the truly local info, street address is required.  As hurricane Irma demonstrated in Florida, when it is time to put the hurricane shutters on, there are neighbors on Nextdoor willing to do it -- for free and right before the storm is expected to arrive. 

Nextdoor users are Internet users. Duh.  But that can be a problem for the elderly – Pew claims that only 66% of the 65+ population are on the Internet.  Even if their statistics are aging since February, full adoption has yet to happen.  No surprise there – consider the list of basic requirements – note who is not online by income.  Also consider broadband availability, router, WiFi, and support for more than one device in the home (more Pew: PC/Mac, iPhone, tablets, Android phones, printer – and not counting the voice devices that may populate later.)  Each year the percentages of seniors online increase. Also increasing -- the potential role of the Internet in mitigating social isolation among the elderly. So let’s hope that when the weather deteriorates on the street where they live -- that they have discovered Nextdoor.

category tags: 

computers, internet and social networking

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/hyperlocal-social-networking-when-nextdoor-matters-most

Four technology (health and aging) blog posts from August 2018

Vacations and out of office messages – it must have been August.  Some have said that there is no point in attempting a business meeting, even online, for August. Perhaps you were one of the 5 million visitors to Cape Cod, roaming the hillside vineyards in California or attending an antique car auction on the coast of Maine.  Having managed to pull off two of those three in the same month, it’s not that crazy. But there were issues, disruptions and sizable opportunities worth noting in August, the biggest one was Best Buy's purchase of GreatCall, just six weeks after Amazon acquired PillPack, the latest big company acquisition -- part of a to-be-continued series important to families and providers of care to seniors. Here are the blog posts from the month:

Best Buy Acquires GreatCall – What’s it Mean for Best Buy? First and lasting take – this links together multiple Best Buy initiatives, starting in 2011.   Look at the history of Best Buy. First a dabble with the now departed Wellcore in 2011 – clearly the time was not right – the oldest baby boomer turned 72 in 2018, but at 65 in 2010, consumers could not comprehend the utility of a wearable fall detector. But Best Buy executives saw the opportunity and decided to learn more.  More significant in 2011, Best Buy became a founding consortium member in a ‘living lab’ Charter House in Rochester, Minnesota (along with Mayo Clinic). "We believe technology has the potential to foster healthy, productive lives by enabling easier access to information and medical care," says Kurt Hulander, then senior director of health platforms at Best Buy.  Read more here.

Robocalls and scams -- a phone-based war against us all.  Many years ago, when the phone rang, we eagerly picked it up.  That was then. For good or ill, families want to text, message and chat. And the phone call has turned into a source of harassment and scams. Robocalling is a modern torment, sometimes multiple back-to-back dials from the same source, often spoofing our own cell phone numbers – where answering the phone puts us on a ‘sucker list’ sold to other scammers. Is it Rachel from Cardmember Services or the IRS Phone Scam,  a fake carpet cleaning offer or worse, the disabled veterans scam, or the grandparent 'this is your grandson' scam?  Read more here.

New Technology offerings for caregivers and families. As summer winds down, innovators rev up.  August is winding down -- the calm before the autumn slew of activity.  Nonetheless, new milestones and partnerships were announced this month, including Embodied Labs becoming a finalist for the Top8 XR Education Prize sponsored by the Bill  Melinda Gates Foundation,  MedMinder reaching 1433 on the Inc5000, the acquisition of GreatCall by BestBuy, and MobileHelp announcing a partnership with LifePod.  And four companies released new offerings to help professional and family caregivers improve monitoring and well-being among older adults. Read more here.

Just because a technology can be built, is it acceptable? Reading the employee microchip article – does it make you shudder?  Observe the development and evolution of modifiers for the word technology. Words like sustainable, appropriate, autonomous all come to mind. With the micro-chipping of employees – the convenience argument is ultra thin. But why would one think about a microchip for an ailing relative, aka an older adult? (Some say we will all get chipped eventually.)  Consider that these "chips will offer a convenient way to track people — especially those suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia."  But who will opt in to being chipped and tracked in that example?  Employees could opt out – but can a person with dementia opt out?  How different is being micro-chipped from wearing a band with identifying address information? For whom is the 'convenience' of micro-chipping offered?  And because it is possible, should it be deployed? Read more here.

category tags: 

cell phones, smartphones, Family caregivers, Boomer-Senior Tech Business

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/four-technology-health-and-aging-blog-posts-august-2018

The technology category that cannot be spoken aloud – serving older adults

Investors continue to salivate over health tech.  Rant on.   So the first half of 2018 saw $3.4 billion in Digital Health (which means whatever you want it to mean.) And even when investments or company rollups are specifically about the Medicare population – frothy writeups cannot bring themselves to use clear wording. Optum acquires DaVita Medical Group and Humana acquires Kindred Healthcare. Gee, what do they do? Yes that is vertical integration in the continuum of care – specifically for health services to elderly Medicare recipients.  And the $146 million that went into PointClickCare – that is software for long-term care (LTPAC), another euphemism for what it really is – care of the elderly, generally in nursing homes.

Some companies see money in aging – but others hide behind euphemisms.  Good for Gillette, which introduces a razor for caregivers to shave others – older family members or care recipients. They were quite specific about the use case. Best Buy makes its largest acquisition ever when it acquires GreatCall. Even Best Buy, which knows exactly what it acquired, a call center and services and products for older adults, referred to GreatCall as a leading ‘connected health services provider.’ Pretty wimpy. And sure enough, investment watchers expressed their ignorance about Best Buy’s history label the purchase as creating ‘a niche in the health space’ or expressing doubts about the acquisition. And even Best Buy connects the acquisition to its interest in ‘human needs’ – true, but not clear.

Meanwhile, startups focused on aging are shunned by the VC community. Honor founder Seth Sternberg asserts that the 65+ market attracts only 0.7% of venture capital. Even a writer trying to find examples of consumer-related initiatives ends up in Australia to hear that it takes longer to create an eCommerce site that can serve older people and must not have looked for FirstStreetOnline in the US.   So with 50 million people aged 65+ now, a Longevity Economy worth $7.6 trillion, only 0.7% of venture money is allocated to serve them?  Really?  Thankfully the big guns like Gillette and Google see an opportunity -- and even an expansion, amazingly, of their business.     

Perhaps the Voice First market will change all that.  But don’t count on it.  A marketer of this tech told me recently that their traction and focus is in ‘healthcare’ – not aging.  Okay, mull that over – since 40% of hospital patients are elderly – accounting for 34% of health spending, despite being only 13% of the population.   But to be fair, there is no elderly equivalent of Voice First KidsMD – though an entrepreneur could imagine an Alexa skill called  CaregiverMD that could match up the usability of Marvee with the useful (but buried) content of WebMD or the Voice First offerings of Mayo Clinic.  We can certainly hope. No doubt if more useful skills emerged that could specifically help older adults, they would no doubt be categorized and described as health care. Rant off.

category tags: 

Aging technology, Aging, Boomer-Senior Tech Business

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/technology-category-cannot-be-spoken-aloud-serving-older-adults