Five technologies for older adults November 2020

November – the month for giving thanks -- remotely.  It was a strange Thanksgiving for many – staying (stuck?) in place with Zoom, FaceTime -- and few place settings. Worse, for many older adults, isolation is a worsening health issue that we will hear more about as shutdowns continue and shut-in becomes the virtual norm.  In November, a long report (the third of 2020) called The Future of Remote Care Technology and Older Adults was published, the result of 30 interviews with executives from organizations large and very small. Here are five companies drawn from the report and beyond – all material is from the company websites:

eCaring.  “Modernizing home care -- Behind eCaring is a team that cares a lot about caregiving. We’ve seen how technology and innovation in other verticals of healthcare have created better treatments, cost-savings, and health outcomes that have ultimately improved lives. Now, we’re bringing transformative technology to one of the most needed, fastest-growing markets — home care." Learn more at eCaring.

GetSetup. “GetSetUp.io is a learning and community platform where older adults can learn about a variety of topics through a live, interactive peer-to-peer teaching model. The platform currently offers more than 150 classes on essential life-changing skills, from professional development to technology, health, wellness, and hobbies and casual social hours, with trained expert guides holding graduate and master's degrees in business, music, science, and more." Learn more at GetSetup.

HomeThrive. “Homethrive provides 24 x 7 digital and human concierge services and expert coaching from certified Homethrive social workers. Homethrive’s program generates personalized recommendations and services -- supporting independence, reducing social isolation, and lessening the stress and workload for family members supporting aging parents. These services include meals, transportation, home care, and medication delivery as well as Medicare plan selection assistance." Learn more at HomeThrive.

MedSign. "MedSign’s Qortex is a secure, HIPAA-compliant, two-way communication platform that connects healthcare professionals to their patients through the home television. Using its Internet-based microprocessor hub, TV mounted high resolution camera, and easy to use remote control, the system enables 24/7 real-time virtual visits and concurrent monitoring, tracking, and recording of vital sign data." Learn more at MedSign.

Zeppi.  “Zeppi floating video call device facilitates and increases family caregiver presence and reduces older adult loneliness with video visits that feel entirely real. Zeppi lets you easily "drop in" for spontaneous chats, visual check-ins, and quick consultations around the tens of issues that arise every day. With a self-positioning camera, life-size high-resolution screen, and excellent audio assembly, Zeppi makes it natural and simple to check in with professional caregivers, attend appointments and get reassurance that all is well when phone calls go unanswered." Learn more at Zeppi.

category tags: 

tech-enabled home care, Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, social isolation, Learning, working, contribution and legacy

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/five-technologies-older-adults-november-2020

Aging and Health Technology Watch 2020 Research – A Recap

A year that saw little travel but it was a good time to write.  Most would agree that this year was not what we expected.  Instead of continuing with business and event travel into March, HIMSS was canceled at the last minute and converted to a virtual event.  And so it went, for Argentum events many other summits. And so it remains a virtual world.  So 2020 was a year that produced 5 white papers and three long research reports emerge – normally not feasible with so much here-and-there travel. By comparison, in 2019 one report, the 2019 Market Overview, was published, along with 2 long and 4 short white papers, listed under Research.  Here are the reports – looking forward to 2021!

Voice, Health, and Wellbeing 2020.  Although work is being explored in using the voice as a health diagnostic tool, most uses today are rudimentary and/or experimental. But the future is exciting. With the beginning of HIPAA-compliance, diagnostic capabilities based on voice, and increased personalization capability, Voice First technology promises to provide greater assistance to health professionals and a better experience for consumers at home. 2020 saw more entrants into this early segment, particularly in voice assistants and new health-oriented skills, refining what works and adds value. This report interview 21 pioneering health and research executives.   Read more.

Technology for Aging 2020 Market Overview.  In 2020, a modest category became mainstream. It took the aging of the baby boomers and the sheer size of the aging population to turn a 2009 market niche into a 2020 major market category. That category is less about products specifically designed for older adults as it is about the marketing of many existing offerings as useful to them. This includes smartphones, tablets, smart home technology, Voice First hardware and virtual assistants, and in-home sensors. Each of those devices is enabled for older adults by either more targeted marketing and packaging, enabling software, or bundling into solutions for in-home caregiving and/or healthcare.  Read more.

The Future of Remote Care Technology and Older Adults 2020. The pandemic catalyzed simultaneous innovation efforts on multiple fronts – many of the initiatives will become fixtures within the emerging remote care technology ecosystem. This report, s with 30 senior executives across health, senior care, technology and policy, examines negative impact of the pandemic on seniors and the technology market that is attempting to provide solutions. Blending years of analyst experience and more than a decade of in-depth research on the older adult technology market, this forward-looking study is illustrated with descriptive graphics, predictions, and quotations from interviewees. Read more.

category tags: 

Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, Voice First/AI/Voice Assistants, Boomer-Senior Tech Business

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/aging-and-health-technology-watch-2020-research-recap

Consider Amazon’s role in the caregiving and older adult market

It’s already been a big year for new Amazon offerings that could benefit older people.   This month’s most obvious change was the introduction of Amazon CareHub, an Alexa app that can be used to help monitor potentially isolated older adults.  But they also have done more work on Amazon Hospitality in partnership with K4Connect (which has rolled out 10,000 Alexa devices to senior living communities).  One might well argue that Amazon has and will continue to have a major impact on the quality of life for older adults (assuming senior privacy concerns and technology barriers to adoption are overcome – more on that another time):

• Offered low-price Voice First devices.  By 2018, it was obvious that this was a breakthrough for seniors, ending the tech requirement to tap, touch, pinch, swipe, zoom…and curse at computers and smartphones. Today we are starting to take it for granted – that we can speak to devices and they will answer, even make the experience enjoyable and enabling it in cars.  There were no doubt various other ways to speak to technology six years ago, when the Echo was introduced.  But reading that complaint in the 2014 GeekWire article today (“I wish it could tell me about wind and windchill”), one has to laugh.  If they only knew what was ahead. 

• Created the Echo Show – with its remarkable user interface.  Not only was the Echo line a breakthrough user interface, in 2017, they introduced the Echo Show, adding a library of access points (today, the Food Network, tomorrow what?) with its text display of large type as a default.  Hmmm.  Might those with declining eyesight want to get answers to questions in a font they could actually read? 

• Senior-focused groups saw ways devices were used to combat social isolation.  In 2018, AARP Foundation began to pilot the Echo devices, including the inexpensive Echo Dot, in low income housing settings.  In 2019, they received a grant to proceed with the same effort in Colorado. And today you can see AARP’s focus in its website AARP Voice.

• Launched CareHub in 2020 – an app that may be yet another beginning.  Seeing growth in the use of Alexa devices among older adults, in September 2020, Amazon launched CareHub, an app for adult children to ‘check in’ (sort of) unobtrusively. Did Mom ask to have some music played on the show – she must be in the kitchen. What about a call for help without a wearable? That could work with appropriate configuration of responders.  Lots of prework and setup required for this, but motivated family could make it useful.

• Amazon in healthcare.  Amazon moved forward in 2018 with HIPAA-compliant tech in healthcare. This past year, the firm added 80,000 health-related terms to help answer consumer questions. It is not unreasonable that we will someday be able to ask questions about our own specific health issues, documented in our actual health record.  And this week, it extended its reach into prescription drugs, built on its PillPack acquisition, to create Amazon Pharmacy.  

category tags: 

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

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/consider-amazon-s-role-caregiving-and-older-adult-market

Remote Care Technology and Older Adults - Filling in the basics 2020

Technology was essential for many adults stuck at home during the pandemic, providing some social connection, access to online shopping, home delivery services, and requests for transportation. But it also became apparent that some older adults who were shut out from these due to limitations in vision, hearing, dexterity, and even dementia.  And for some, technologies were not affordable – median income of a household age 75+ is $34,925. Yet it is also becoming apparent that organizations that serve older adults realize that gaps exist. They are  increasingly motivated and will strive to ramp up efforts to deliver a greater degree of access than the numbers show today. What are the key dimensions that need to be addressed moving forward?

• Broadband access.  In the 2020 OTI report, The Cost of Connectivity, researchers examined 296 data plans in the US, finding that only 64 of them meet the FCC definition of broadband.  According to the report, most of the US plans are in places that lack competition, leading to high prices and hidden fees. In-home and high-speed access to the Internet is still elusive for many in the US.  According to Pew Research in 2020, 21 million Americans lack access to broadband, as well as 60% of healthcare facilities outside of metropolitan areas. Looked at by age, 27% of the 65+ population lack access to broadband.   Senior living and nursing homes have long lagged in delivering broadband access though that is likely to change.

• Device access.  Even if older adults had at least regional access to broadband, the devices they are using may not be up to the engagement, healthcare, or smarter home opportunities that would improve quality of life. And a sizable percentage do not own an appropriate device.  According to AARP’s December 2019 research report, 62% of those aged 70+ own a smartphone and 40% own a tablet.  And even if they did, they might need help with an up-to-date Internet router, managing software upgrades, and avoiding spam and web threats. While smart speakers and voice assistants have improved ease of use and seamless upgrades, both depend on broadband to work properly.

• Training access.  For those older adults who own the right devices to obtain access, have Internet connectivity, they may need assistance in getting started with use of remote care technologies.  A popular engagement tool like Zoom have a less than intuitive user interface for the uninitiated, prompting a 9-page guide from Senior Planet , as well as senior living organizations providing a Zoom guide. And one of the key requirements for video tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams is helping people get and/or position a camera.

[This is the last blog post in the series about The Future of Remote Care Technology and Older Adults 2020, a research report to be in the next few weeks]

category tags: 

Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, computers, internet and social networking

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/remote-care-technology-and-older-adults-filling-basics-2020

Four technology and aging blog posts from October 2020

Voice-enabled innovation softly races ahead. Technology innovation announcements whiz by at what seems to be a breakneck pace. Consider Amazon’s Whisper Mode – “I think you just whispered to me – Sau ‘turn on’ Whisper Mode.” Not just for insomniacs, imagine its utility for the faint-voiced older adult wanting to ask a question. Or consider Apple Family Setup, which enables an Apple Watch to be set up and used without an iPhone, enabling texts, calls and GPS location. Or in-Car voice technology like Garmin Speak-Plus for directions without a screen (that’s a plus). Here are five examples. Read more.

Social isolation of older adults – a problem and an opportunity.  Life has been worsening for older adults – in senior living and at home. Every day there is some new article about the impact of Covid-19 on older adults -- or another study turns up that you missed. Residents in senior living communities are having a tough time, cut off from activities and visits from family. Isolation has produced an increase in mental health issues, loneliness and depression – and that would be for those who have a good grasp of what is going on – for those in long-term care, for those with dementia, unable to be hugged by family, it is far worse. What’s been going on with older adults in the context of social isolation and loneliness? Read more.

What is the status and future of remote care technologies? The pandemic has likely transformed the senior-focused ecosystem. It triggered ingenuity of senior care organizations and vendors; and it energized innovators and prospective investors. Reimbursement of technology was a key policy change in 2020 that fueled adoption and investment in telehealth. That change super-charged growth in telehealth-related companies that had been growing incrementally. And as senior living executives agreed early, from a technology investment standpoint there’s no turning back.  Read more.

What’s up with investing in home care and technology? Some recent announcements offer almost the same frothy level of investment that characterized the 2016 investor spending spree, neatly noted in a 2016 Forbes article. The Forbes list included the $157 million poured into Care.com, unfortunately revealing a shocking lack of company oversight of care workers in 2019. Home Care Assistance received $100 million in 2016. In fact, 2013-2017 saw the rise, rise, and then fall of Home Hero – which raised $18 million (closing in 2017) and Hometeam’s $40 million in 2016.  Read more.

 

category tags: 

Voice First/AI/Voice Assistants, Telehealth-RPM-Voice Health, tech-enabled home care

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