What is the Future of Remote Care Technology and Older Adults?

Lots of talk about remote care technologies -- but will the 2020 crisis convert to actual technology change?   So much has changed in recent months as a result of Covid-19 -- startling changes that previously were incremental.  Consider reimbursement for telehealth technologies, a wave of free engagement software,  distribution of tablets to senior centers and Echo Dots to senior living, to remote care voice tech for high needs seniors and government-funded competition to combat social isolation.  And no doubt that's just a subset of what's happening as frantic attempts are made to close gaps in communication, care delivery, safety, social isolation and more.  

Consider the components of technology to deliver remote care. As the world settles into a post-pandemic phase, what will matter most for the care of and benefit for older adults? Of course, ramping up access to technology using what’s available today is a good start. Organizations everywhere are rallying to the need to fix or solidify connectivity, whether as part of national policy directive, care delivery, family pressure, staff retention, or maintaining service delivery. These include senior housing, skilled nursing facilities, home care, home healthcare, or healthcare providers. High speed internet connections, smartphone adoption, software access will likely follow. What technology considerations will need to be next, so that uptake and deployment can move from a desperate to a more measured pace?

What are the dimensions of remote care technology? What should they be? After the re-opening and stabilization phase of businesses in 2020 and beyond, families, seniors and care delivery organizations will want to do better at obtaining and delivering remote care in its many forms -- i.e. when the care recipient is elsewhere. What will be the priority? Telehealth demands continued investment -- phone, video, remote patient and/or device monitoring. Along with telehealth, will wearables for health and wellbeing be a priority post Covid-19? What about voice and other engagement technologies – or other tools for caregiver teams and family connection? And for home care – is there a better way to engage and retain the worker? What changes will be wrought in smart home categories – sensors, robotics, predictive analytics that improve remote monitoring and carein a post-Covid world?

Thoughts welcome. With the pandemic at some point behind them, how/will senior-focused organizations -- including seniors centers, senior living, healthcare providers, home care and home health care -- change their use of technology next year and beyond?  

category tags: 

Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, Family caregivers, home health care, IoT and home monitoring

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/what-future-remote-care-technology-and-older-adults

Five innovations for older adults from Israel

Innovation for older adults – not keeping pace in the US.   We get pretty excited when a new venture firm starts up in the US that focuses on older adults. One imagines that the phone there is ringing off the hook. Why? That makes at least three US VC firms, including Generator Ventures and Linkage Ventures, that acknowledge the older adult technology market, let alone fund early stage entrants. Consider that the 65-and-older population has grown by a third in the past decade –  now at 54 million (or 16% of the US’ 328 million).  Are three VCs enough to cultivate innovation needed to serve older adults, given the shortage of caregivers in homecare, home healthcare and senior living? And that’s today – never mind the projected growth of the segment in the coming years.

Consider Israel, on the other hand… Meanwhile Israel’s population is 10 million people, recent startups focused on innovation for Covid-19 specifically.  But there is a long list of entrants noted here and also there – particularly note the mention of the ecosystem of accelerators and VCs.  Here are five in alphabetical order and not previously mentioned on this website:

BioEye.  BioEye, Ltd. has developed a proprietary, patent-pending mobile eye-tracking platform which utilizes a smart phone camera to capture changes in ocular biomarkers to assess changes in brain function. ​ Using our application and a smartphone camera, we capture a short video of the eyes, and using machine learning models extract eye markers in real-time, uploading them to a big-data cloud repository for analysis. Learn more at BioEye.

EchoCare. A non-wearable, elderly-care, home monitoring system that automatically alerts safety and emergency situations. The ECHO system is a connected, machine-learning, Advanced-PERS (Personal Emergency Response System) that includes a disruptive fall detector with a very low false alarm. In addition to unprecedented fall detection capabilities, the ECHO system detects and alerts on other emergency situations, such as sleep apnea, hyperventilation, abnormal situations, and change from elderly daily routines. Learn more at EchoCare-Tech.

Effectivate. Effectivate is a unique brain training program, combining strengthening of memory and attention infrastructure with learning memory techniques that assist in daily activities. The training adapts to your specific abilities, helping you reach optimal results and realize your brain’s potential for memory. Learn more at Effectivate,org.

JoyTunes. JoyTunes is bringing music learning into every single household around the world, whether it’s piano, guitar, sax, singing, or any other instrument. To do so, we use cutting-edge technology to empower millions worldwide to fulfill their musical dreams. Our current piano learning apps are seeing fast user and revenue growth, chosen as one of the best apps by Apple and Google and used by 10% of US piano teachers. Learn more at JoyTunes.

TuneFork. Audio personalization technology that includes a self-test protocol available on the user’s mobile device (Android or iOS) and conducted via headphones. To enable this, we have developed a unique calibration methodology based on certified audiometry calibration equipment, making this test more accurate than any other currently available self-test without the use of specialized hardware. Learn more at TuneFork.

 

 

 

category tags: 

Boomer-Senior Tech Business

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/five-innovations-older-adults-israel

Why industry analysts and PR agencies both matter

Approaching the 20^th year in this job category, so let’s reflect.  OPINION ON. Industry analysts wear many hats, but the primary role is to understand and communicate about a particular category market of companies/players.  This includes writing market research documents (blogs, white papers, reports) about the categories that can help position them in comparison to each other and new entrants. It includes giving advice to current and new entrants. Analysts also do custom paid work for some of those companies– such as advisory sessions, surveys, webinars, speaking engagements, or white papers.  Analyst firms typically publish market overviews -- for the tech sector, Gartner Magic Quadrant positioning, Forrester Wave or IDC market surveys.

What key characteristics of analysts matter? Analysts must strive to be objective when surveying who is in, entering or even departing a market. To do the job, they must be open to learning about new companies, either by searching for them, reading press releases, or being briefed directly.  Many analysts  ultimately leave the large analyst firms after they have mastered the craft and continue as an individual brand or join with others to form small team firms of analysts.

What an analyst is not – a PR firm.  While analysts track what’s happening in a market and may produce paid white papers (hopefully clearly identified as such), analyst firms are not PR agencies – that is, in business to spread the word about new products or companies – although their content can be useful in generating PR.  PR agencies are specifically focused on the client company’s message – and facilitate awareness and associated publicity about that message, ideally helping to create interest and even leads.  Sometimes their jobs are about overcoming the impact of negative messages – bad reviews or public critiques of products.  Size matters – consider a small agency when a startup is still small. PR firms need to understand the industry they are working with, even when new, including any analyst publications about their clients.

Why tech vendors and startups need to get to know both.  First and foremost, if there is a publication from an analyst firm about a market, it’s important to brief the analyst so that the new company can appear in it.  That briefing can be arranged by a PR agency who may assign someone to sit in on the briefing and note questions or follow-up.  These days, given the overlap in the health and aging tech marketplaces – and the needs of older adults, it is useful to understand that overlap and pitch to it (versus exclusively one or the other).  It is striking the level of ignorance of that overlap, or even by health professionals. OPINION OFF. 

category tags: 

Boomer-Senior Tech Business, Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/why-industry-analysts-and-pr-agencies-both-matter

Center Tour: InnovAge PACE California - Sacramento

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF1ZMPlaomc

Five notable technology offerings for older adults

Companies and products worth noting in August.  It may be the dog days of summer, but life and innovation move forward – and so it is with offerings to note that serve older adults. In particular, it is great to see the emergence of Primetime Partners, specifically focused on the aging-related market opportunity. The first, HomeEXCEPT was one missed at the time, emerging from a 2017 AARP Innovation Business Plan competition. The last was offered by a giant US network.  Go figure.

HomeEXCEPT.  “HomeEXCEPT is hardware and software for active seniors, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and researchers. The hardware is used to tag objects and monitor their use. The software is used to set notifications for specific events and see changes in the patterns for activities of daily living. The information from HomeEXCEPT can also help with more complex questions and patterns of activity. We use pattern maps and graphs to visualize this information." Learn more.

Livindi.  “Livindi keeps families connected with LivindiPad, a tablet for seniors. Simply touching a picture on the screen starts a video call. Voice to text helps those with diminished hearing. Families can send pictures to a digital picture frame. Livindi includes a set of sensors which monitor activity and environment and recognize behavioral changes. When a potential issue is identified, Livindi alerts caregivers on their smart phones. Livindi comes pre-configured and connected to the Internet. Livindi is available now and setup takes minutes." Learn more.

Sundial Alexa Skill. "The Sundial skill for Alexa and the mobile app work together to connect older adults (the Center) to their loved ones (Care Circle). The Center uses the voice and touch enabled Sundial skill for Alexa (optimized for the Amazon Echo Show) to interact with their private Care Circle of family and friends. Once invited, Care Circle members can download the Sundial mobile apps to interact with the Center and each other. When the skill is enabled and the mobile apps are connected, the Center simply says “Alexa, open Sundial” to enjoy the Sundial features."  Learn more.

Tembo.Health.  "Tembo.Health, funded at least in part by Primetime Partners, a new aging-focused VC firm, is a provider of telemedicine services intended to connect patients with specialty services like psychiatry and cardiology, including those in nursing homes. The company's platform connects the specialists to patient data and collaborates with the nursing staff to provide better care plans and also, enabling patients with the care option as per their needs." Learn more.

Verizon Care Smart Watch. "Care Smart comes with a number of pre-loaded messages making it easier than ever for seniors to respond to text messages. An easy-to-read screen displays the date and time and streamlined 3-touch navigation for accessing contacts, placing calls or sending texts makes this smartwatch a snap to use. Helpful functions, like a timer, stopwatch, volume and ringtone controls allow the wearer to customize their watch to their lifestyle. Care Smart helps seniors stay effortlessly connected with loved ones with easy-to-use functions and simplified calling and texting."  Learn more.

category tags: 

Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, Voice First/AI/Voice Assistants, wearables, smart watch, IoT and home monitoring, healthcare

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/five-notable-technology-offerings-older-adults

Four Aging and Health Technology Blog Posts from July 2020

For older adults, July was a few steps forward…  And a few back.  A new venture capital firm formed that is focused on the older adult market.  Primetime Partners adds a $32 million fund to the miniscule list of VCs both admitting interest AND actually investing in the segment.  At the end of June, the federal government published its status report on aging-related initiatives, which was especially notable for including tech investment in ombudsman programs.  And it became increasingly likely that CMS would make telehealth access for older adults permanent. On the other hand, a new poll noted the prevalence of ageism for older adults and that other Covid-19 related pandemic – loneliness in late life.  More on that in several upcoming white papers. Here are the four July posts:

Hearing loss:  Covid-19 sharpens the benefits of teleaudiology. Half of those aged 75+ and one-third of the 65+ have hearing loss. During the pandemic, telehealth use grew sharply in the care of older adults, enabled by CMS reimbursement changes that likely will be permanent. It’s also likely that teleaudiology (the utilization of telehealth to provide audiological services) will gain additional importance when face-to-face visits are worrisome, even impossible in some locations. As with other market segments, the hearing health market saw the opportunity to promote their teleaudiology (or tele-audiology) services for those who already own telehealth-capable hearing aids that may need adjustment. Some may require a smartphone app and in-office guidance from the audiologist to get started with it, or at the least, read an explainer about "merging face time with FaceTime."  Read more.

During Covid-19, do older adults take their prescribed meds? Not necessarily. Medication non-adherence has long been a topic of concern, with the cost of poor adherence amounting to $177 billion each year, 50% of treatment failures, and as many as 25,000 deaths. And according to the Pharmacy Times, Covid-19 has made a problematic situation much worse. Some pharmacy experts express concern about the pandemic’s side effects of isolation, job loss/loss income, medication costs, missed or unavailable doctor’s appointments, or issues with package delivery. And the CDC has expressed concern about risks and modified procedures for older adults and pick-up of prescriptions in pharmacies.  Read more.

Covid-19 and Mid-Year Look at 2020 Tech Trends for Older Adults. In early 2020, focus sharpened on market categories of aging and caregiving. AARP published a new report that showed growing interest in technology among those aged 70+. The 127,000 CES 2020 attendees in January saw exhibit areas and innovations focused on older adults and what they need. Cambia Health released a survey of caregivers, 64% of surveyed caregivers use at least one digital tool to help them with caregiving. The National Alliance for Caregiving surveyed caregivers about their use of technology (surprisingly low), and Samsung, Best Buy and Amazon now group offerings that could be helpful for older adults and those who care for them.   Read more.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, tech nice-to-haves have become critical. Between boosting the deployment of telehealth technologies, once-delayed initiatives became instantly late. Consumers are on board with telehealth, and engagement technologies like smartphones and tablets are offered through Medicare Advantage, plus a wave of other pandemic-related tactics and free offerings appeared. Thousands of smart speaker devices have been delivered to senior living communities. Note that PACE programs for frail and low-income elderly are now directed by CMS to use remote technology for "activities that would normally occur on an in-person basis," such as scheduled and unscheduled participant assessments, care planning, monitoring, communication, and other activities.  Read more.

category tags: 

hearables/hearing technology, medication management, social isolation, covid-19, Aging, ageism

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/four-aging-and-health-technology-blog-posts-july-2020

What’s next with Voice tech and seniors?

Voice tech is pervasive – for some, but hardware market adoption may be slowing.  At the end of April, ninety million US adults were estimated to own smart speakers, one-third of consumers.  The last published eMarketer survey in 2019 sized the software voice assistant (Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa et al.) as penetrating one third of the US population – 111.8 million.  But according to a late 2019 AARP survey, only 20% of the 50+ population use voice assistants – and for the 70+, only 12%.  For those that have them, they are being used daily.  What’s holding the others back?  Typically, as in this podcast from 'This Week in Voice' about Aging in Place, one hears the usual concerns about security and privacy, no doubt because older people have expressed those concerns.   Note that 51% of 5000 responders in this 2020 global marketing survey worry about voice assistants listening to them without their consent. Also note that the survey extended to boomers (those aged 56 to 74) who apparently cared less than younger people.

Is it furniture or feature?  The statistics about ownership and usage of voice tech are staggering. But tech spending has jumped across all age segments since the pandemic began.   According to eMarketer’s newest report Better Be Nice to the Boomers, the 55+ population specifically has increased its digital spending 47%.  So let’s say you have an assistant on your smartphone and a smart speaker in your house.  You tap, speak directives or even yell at them in annoyance. You expect these offerings to play music, set a timer, answer a question accurately, or to shut up when we say.  Like the increasingly rare stereo speaker in the home, the smart speaker is a connected appliance. What will be the year that an uptick in usage for smart speakers and voice assistants turn them into commodity concepts, embedded in devices, expected in homes at miniscule price points, but not actually a standalone category at all?

2020 is that year – when a category is subsumed into technology ecosystems.  In 2018, the emergence of voice technology was heralded by many as ‘magical’ and for older adults it was viewed (including by analysts) as enormously appealing and with high potential. Judging by the downloads of The Future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults 2018, industry observers saw the potential. From the Commonwealth Care Alliance to the CTA Foundation, voice was predicted to become part of the "accessible ecosystem." Many of the predictions in that 2018 report -- from the migration of the user experience to customized conversations to remembered context to the growth of personalization -- have already happened. And most important, voice capabilities are gradually being incorporated into the healthcare ecosystem – at a faster rate for medical dictation, at a slower rate for an effective and pervasive patient experience.

For older adults, up next, a remote care technology ecosystem.  In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic of isolation and distance, voice tech now looks like another tech feature, found in every conceivable place – from the car to the kitchen. What older adults need is a broad set of remote care capabilities that include but are not limited to voice access. That urgent requirement was etched into focus during the pandemic. Music and recipes, how nice. Fetching a ride, answering a healthcare question, that's a nicer-to-have, especially when visiting the doctor is off-limits.  But the chasm of access and capability yawned into disturbing focus during the pandemic. That chasm highlighted the isolation in senior care facilities and in seniors' homes, widening the distance from families -- and highlighting lack of connection with health providers. Consider the rise of telehealth, but also consider the wave of ageism that surfaced, accentuating and predicting further isolation of older adults. Consider what it meant for the elderly with dementia, for families cut off from in-person visits, and what the caregiving nightmare was like in nursing homes.  Tech firms that think they are in the 'Voice First' industry need to adjust to being in the broader tech industry that includes telehealth, sensors, smartphones, wearables, smart televisions, and caregiving software.  Voice-enabled as appropriate and useful, but step 1, let's see more of the older adult world tech-enabled.  Period.

category tags: 

Voice First/AI/Voice Assistants, Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, Aging, ageism

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/what-s-next-voice-tech-and-seniors