Voice, Health, and Well-being – Launching a New Report for 2020

It’s a given -- Voice First will be even more pervasive in 2020. The rapid growth of the market for voice-enabled technologies has been a phenomenon within the past two years that can understand spoken requests and commands, answer questions, and even offer scheduled alerts.  Industry firms like Gartner expect that the combination of natural language processing, AI, and speech recognition are driving significant growth in adoption of voice technology across multiple dimensions. Speech recognition, for example, will penetrate 80% of mobile devices by 2020.   Some describe this trend of developing software for voice-enabled device user interfaces as Voice First.

Voice First in health -- examples proliferate – is this a fad, or is there staying power?  You can’t turn around without encountering another example. Startups (37) are building voice apps; consider that voice skills seem to be populating like weeds in healthcare, the big vendors want to be popping up at the bedside in patient care, and of course, all this deployment will change healthcare. But is that true? A research report project launches in September that will seek answers to these and other questions. The process will incorporate interviews with 20-30 experts/stakeholders. For those who are interested in assisting in shaping the direction on this topic through a few limited sponsorships, please send a note to laurie@ageinplacetech.com.

Why tackle the topic of voice, health, and well-being?  This research is a follow-on report to the 2018 Future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults. The research/report process seeks to understand the role that voice-activated technologies can play in monitoring and improving health, engaging multiple age groups, including boomer-senior adults living at home or in senior living. The scope and details of the topic are subject to shaping by report sponsors, but may also consider younger age groups and how they may benefit from Voice First support in disease management; or how individuals respond to health and well-being suggestions based on profiles, interactions and feedback. The report may attempt to answer, among other questions:

• What is the opportunity for voice assistants as envisioned by health care providers?
• What’s new in the use of voice-enabled technology for home healthcare, outpatient healthcare services and monitoring or encouraging well-being?
• What are the different types of voice-enabled services/scenarios for home health, home care, senior living, or outpatient care?
• What’s next and who (or what organizations) will be involved?

Your thoughts are welcome. In a rapidly changing technology segment like this, no one person or organization can see clearly what is happening or what may happen next.  Please feel free to comment directly to this post or send thoughts to laurie@ageinplacetech.com. The goal of this project is to complete interviews in Q4 and publish the report in early Q1 2020.  Thanks in advance for your help and thoughts.

category tags: 

Voice First/AI/Voice Assistants, mHealth-Digital Health-Telehealth-Voice Health, healthcare, home health care

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/voice-health-and-well-being-launching-new-report-2020

Design for all – what we wanted and what we got

Here’s a test. Can you look at a list, for example, of technologies that vendor websites claim are aimed at older adults and their caregivers -- and substitute younger beneficiaries or health care recipients?  Do designers who develop applications, devices, and websites that appear to target older adults do that exercise of substitution as they proceed from concept to pilot to delivered offering? Was that what was meant in the concept ‘design for all’ in this prescient report ‘Connected Living for Social Aging’ sponsored by AARP in 2011?  Per the report’s definition of ‘Design for all’: User experiences that appeal to all age groups, persisting across versions and devices.   

What does senior-specific mean? We can tell that app stores and search engines think they know what is meant by ‘senior-specific’. Note the proliferation of apps and websites targeting seniors, and wonder, has the ‘design for all’ concept lost meaning or relevance? Now that user interfaces (think cars, chairs or smartphone screens) can be adaptive/adjustable to the needs of owners from use of a different key in the car or tap on a screen, why create specialized software at all?

Consider further the definition itself. Should ‘design for all’ mean for all people, for all devices or both, as the report argued? Consider this phrase from the report: “design-for-all technologies will provide our own personalized network of devices that recognize where they are through our authorized and turned-on GPS location tracking; they automatically know streets have changed and offer the latest directions—no need to download new maps.”  Not easy in 2011, but standard operating procedure today, along with privacy concerns and transformation (not necessarily with our permission) of user preferences into data, along with product and service recommendations.

The advice to vendors from the 2011 report -- did we get what we wanted? Below are the points of advice to vendors derived from 30 interviewees for this document (who ranged from academic experts to CEOs to futurists. The guidance was pointed, but was the point achieved?

• Transform senior technology products to be health-specific.  A design-for-all world will gradually eliminate the need for niche vendors who market software, hardware, devices for a senior audience. Instead, vendors will create health condition-specific offerings for chronic disease management or assistive technologies that cross all age ranges.

 

Takeaway: Niche offerings for seniors remain because the ‘intuitive’ user interface isn’t really and no one wants to be made to feel stupid.

 

• Separate user interfaces from physical devices. Software version changes, new functionality and invasive viruses plague us. If the computer is infected, as prices drop we may be as likely to discard it as repair it, in the same way we send our now-obsolete cell phones into the recycle bin when we discover the smart phone carried by our peers and family members. In the future, we will pop on a new external ‘skin’ and pay to subscribe to new features as they appear in the cloud, our existing device adapting to new capabilities rather than starting over.

 

• Craft a total customer experience that blends online and offline worlds.  Just as customers today expect to be able to chat online if they have a problem, they delight in vendor experiences that are as great online as they are offline.

 

Takeaway: Online retail has made the transformation nearly complete, as more stores close, or buy online to pick up in the store replaces shopping.  Chatting with a bot, unfortunately, has replaced discussing a product with a person, and customer experience has deteriorated, replaced by (retailer) cost reduction.

• Create public-private partnerships to lower cost of connection.  With more widely available high-speed infrastructure, vendors will benefit from sliding scales of access pricing, facilitated by partnerships with governments and non-profits.  Why should they want older adults online, subsidizing to make it happen? They want to lower their costs of service, ensure that programs offered can be utilized, and keep an aging population connected to alternatives for better health, working, and social meaning. 

 

Takeaway: Much has been done, but according to Pew, 27% of the 65+ population is not online – theories range from cost, perceived value, and a correlation with lower income and education.  And technology deployment is more complicated as devices proliferate – which created more comprehensive training capabilities.

 

• Understand that design-for-all means experienced by all.  To reach a broader audience across income and age spectrums, vendors must expand programs that reuse no-longer-need devices, formalizing and advertising ways to enable iPads to be reconfigured for community and senior center use, laptops to replace desktops, and smartphones to replace cell phones. And Pew Research studies show that smart phone users, particularly older adults, download apps that they don’t use because they don’t know how.

 

Takeaway:  Re-use and redeployment has happened – as for apps, they are a-plenty, including scam apps.

• Engage with older adults to turn bystanders into buyers.  Too often market research can be self-fulfilling prophecy. The data shows us that certain age groups aren’t buying -- therefore we shouldn’t market to those age groups. Instead, vendors should assume the opposite – go out and find why products aren’t penetrating specific age brackets and learn about barriers or missing capabilities. Using input from all age groups will expand market reach – yielding benefits for all.

 

Takeaway:  Considering design, including tech, awareness of an aging population is growing as the boomer age wave moves through. But senior-friendly design and testing of general market consumer products (not just tech) is under the radar, if it is happening at all.

category tags: 

Aging technology, Boomer-Senior Tech Business, smartphones, cell phones

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/design-all-what-we-wanted-and-what-we-got

Six new technologies for older adults – July 2019

More smarts are moving into tech for older adults. AI capabilities combined with a Voice First interface is increasingly expected – and so they are part of new offerings to help older adults, bothliving at home or in senior living communities. Will older adults be comfortable with them?  Will they be used effectively to help them remain as safe, independent and/or well as possible? These remain to be validated, but between the smarter homes and the smart devices, we are heading into another wave of innovation.  Here are six technologies (alphabetical order) entering the space – information is drawn from firm websites:

Handsfree Health. "WellBe^® utilizes advanced speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis to deliver information and answers from any place in your home where it can hear your voice. HandsFree Health's WellBe, is a secure, HIPAA compliant in-home voice-activated device that speaks when spoken to. Among its many features, WellBe can be programmed to remind you or your loved ones to take medicine, to make or keep appointments, order refills, and to require verbal confirmation that it's been done."  Learn more at Handsfree Health.

SafelyYou. "Results-driven AI technology designed for memory care. SafelyYou-Guardian™ is our artificial intelligence hub that is installed at the facility. It applies AI algorithms to video received by cameras installed around the facility. When a fall is detected, SafelyYou-Guardian triggers a series of events in real-time that include text messages or phone calls to the on-call staff. All video which is not detected as containing a fall is immediately deleted from the system."  Learn more at Safely-You.

StaySmartCare. "We use discreet monitors to collect data on the daily activities of your loved one. No wearables required. We monitor health data, activity data, medication data, and cognitive data for a complete picture of how your loved one is doing around the clock – without interrupting their activities of daily living or intruding upon their privacy.  Our call center is alerted 24/7 with nurses on call that will take immediate action should something out of the ordinary (such as a fall) occur. We’ll call family and EMS at the first sign of possible trouble. The Stay Smart Care mobile app will also alert all caretakers linked to your account." Learn more at StaySmartCare.

Tochie. "Tochie enables caregivers to assist seniors with personalized voice reminders to help them stay on top of their medication or caregiver schedules, and daily tasks or appointments. Caregivers are able to assist with a senior’s daily calendar by remotely recording voice reminders and scheduling these reminders to play when needed. The remote scheduling, done through the Tochie mobile app, offers caregivers convenience when setting up and modifying reminders for their loved ones. An instant message feature allows caregivers to send an immediate voice message to the senior - a spontaneous message of encouragement, or an update on an unplanned change in schedule." Learn more at Tochtech Technologies.

Well.said. "Well.Said’s Better Every Day improves connection to the community, enhances daily life and supports independence.  It gives Loved Ones the peace of mind that their family member is doing well, increasing in independence and enjoying life.  Using Alexa, it bridges the digital divide for seniors, overcoming barriers associated with other technologies while enhancing their sense of connectedness and wellbeing. The MyDay skill is available on Alexa for adults living at home or in independent living settings.  For more information on Well.Said's solutions." Learn more at Wellsaid.ai.

Wytcote SeniorSense. "Powered by Wytecote’s Autobahn of IoT™, SeniorSense™ easily tracks your residents, your team, your vendors and visitors, as well as your physical plant conditions with unparalleled real-time visibility. Plus, SeniorSense™ easily integrates with your existing solutions, software, call systems and wearables into one place, with one dashboard. The unparalleled SeniorSense™ system keeps track of all of this and more, providing health alerts to care team and families, or responsible parties. Plus, it keeps detailed records to reduce your risks and increase your HIPAA compliance while giving residents and families greater peace of mind." Learn more at SeniorSense.

[NOTE: If you are reading this post in email, take a look at it on www.ageinplacetech.com to find other resources and articles.]

category tags: 

IoT and home monitoring, fall prevention, fall detection, dementia care, cognitive decline, smart home, Voice First/AI/Voice Assistants

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/six-new-technologies-older-adults-july-2019

Older adults and screen time – what’s it mean?

Pew’s latest opus examined screen time for older adults.  The highlight of this document published in June – from age 60 to 80 and beyond, older adults spend more time on their screens (watching TV or videos) than on anything else other than sleep. And that includes time spent working. And one other interesting tidbit – 40% of those in their 60s are still working, which of course includes the un-retired.  But 14% of people in their 70s are still working, according to Pew, along with 4% of people in their 80s.  The report also notes that 73% of the 65+ are Internet users, and 53% are smartphone users.  As with the younger population, reading and socializing time has ticked down.

What’s on that screen, anyway? For the 65+, only 26% in  another study during the same time period were identified as Netflix users.  The BLS offers more granular statistics – those 65 and older watch more TV than teenagers.  Broken down geographically, it can’t be because of the weather. Among Cable TV users, folks in Florida and Arizona, ironically, watch fewer than 3 hours per day, compared to 3 hours per day in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.   The Pew document did not examine time spent online as screen time– but Facebook’s user base is growing among older adults, presumably balancing the sizable loss of young people as well as the 30 million who died during the company’s first eight years, now able to be memorialized through a new 'legacy' feature. But we digress.

What happened to exercise? Maybe during the time older adults are in front of screens, they have already exercised for the day. Unfortunately, no. Only 16.4% of adults age 65-74 and 10.2% of the 75+ age groups met federal exercise guidelines in 2018. In the fine print, these aren’t too onerous if a little is done each day. Yet reasons why not to exercise (excuses, etc.) equal the list of compelling positives. And just published, it turns out that exercising in the morning improves memory. Alas, the chair and ever-larger TV screen beckon, with new series, episodes, interactions, videos and updates, both inviting and available with a single tap.

Other factors correlate with the Pew data -- obesity and work.  Correlated with the rise in screen time for the 60+ population, it’s no surprise that 41% of individuals aged 60+ have been identified as obese according to the CDC.  Both CDC and the screen time data show that higher levels of education correlate with working past the age of 60 (Pew) and, not surprisingly, lower levels of obesity (CDC).  And in fact, 53% of those aged 65+ with a college degree are still in the workforce.  A caveat: the Pew survey period ends in 2017, the CDC data concluded in 2016. As the worker shortage worsened during 2018, nearly half of new jobs were filled by those aged 55+, and in 2019, more than 20% of those aged 65+ are working or looking for work.  At the least, these folks are busier -- maybe screen time for them has declined.

 

[NOTE: If you are reading this post in email, take a look at it on www.ageinplacetech.com to find other resources and articles.]

 

category tags: 

computers, internet and social networking, baby boomers, healthcare

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/older-adults-and-screen-time-what-s-it-mean

Tech adoption grows for older adults -- why?

In 2019, Tech adoption changes -- some.  It’s known as the Amazon effect. As brick-and-mortar based businesses dwindle in favor of online, access to smartphone and broadband are becoming the enablers of information flow to older adults.  Pew Research helps us understand who, what, and possibly why people buy and own technology. Non-users, particularly broadband, are thus on one side of the so-called digital divide.  The latest Mobile Technology and Home Broadband 2019 report reveals a change in the role of smartphones, particularly as a sole device for connecting to the Internet – 37% of responders to this year’s survey go online primarily using a smartphone, with 58% of 18-29-year-olds saying they mostly go online that way, though that number dropped to 15% for the 65+.   

• Smartphone adoption moves up for the oldest.  According to the commentary in the Pew report, while 59% of the 65-75 are smartphone owners, the new number was 40% for the 75+, which had an ownership rate of 31% (age 75-79), last surveyed in 2017, when 17% of the 80+ had them.  Though the influence of education and income factors for the 75+ were not included, assumptions are straightforward – higher income and education drive up adoption.   No kidding, given how high smartphone prices have become – and how they got all the way to $2000. And those prices do not include a monthly data plan.
• Speculating on why smartphone adoption for older adults is up?  According to this Verizon store display, there are 6 flip phones left in the menu.  AT&T also has six (at the bottom of the phone selections).  A new marketing ploy for flip phones – avoid notification overload – seems aimed at the inundated Facebook, Twitter recipients – and suggests having a flip phone in addition to a smartphone.  But anyway, with few flip phones to buy any more, it is no surprise that older adult smartphone adoption has grown.
• Home broadband – that enabler of streaming – is also up to 59% of the 65+.  Broadband adoption, not surprising given the average cost, ironically in a country were 145 million people do not have access to a low-priced plan. At a nationwide average of $60/month, 44% of lower income responders do not have home broadband. For the 41% of the 65+ that do not, likely price was a factor.

What’s does growing adoption mean in practice? Perhaps wireless broadband in public places like restaurants has become so good, that bringing your own device is enough for many who do not have broadband at home.  For others, perhaps they have it at work or at the home of a family member.  As smartphone prices have climbed at the high end, upgrade intervals are approaching 3 years and leaving phone-centric companies like Apple talking up services as the replacement revenue stream for a 30% recent drop in iPhone sales (8% drop for Samsung). But other factors could be at play as well for seniors – well-publicized online scams and fraud, well-publicized surveys that show older adults as sharers of fake news, and the need for better training for users trying to protect their identity and privacy.

category tags: 

smartphones, computers, internet and social networking

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/tech-adoption-grows-older-adults-why

Ten Years – Technology for Older Adults – 2009-2019

Look back to remind us where we are.  Ten years ago, the tech product choices designed for older adults were few and rudimentary. The intent was simplification of the basics for the tech-reluctant – sending email, looking at information online.  As an analyst migrating from the IT industry, it was startling how limited the capabilities of the offerings Presto the Printing Mailbox (used, eBay), Celery (printing mailbox – gone), Mailbug (device to send-receive email – still on Amazon), and Big Screen Live (browser for seniors - gone).  According to an AARP Healthy@Home report from 2008, the only home tech device that had any level of awareness (91% of responders) was Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS).

How has the context changed? There were 39 million older adults aged 65+ in 2009 -- today there are nearly 55 million.  Assisted living costs averaged $36K per year, today they average $48K.  Prospective caregiver population was projected to be scarce by 2020.  Today, the shortage of workers for assisted living and home care is a crisis.   In 2009, adult children wanted their parents to be online or at least get email.  Today, to a large degree (more than two-thirds), of their parents are online.  In fact, a greater percentage of the oldest (the real seniors) could be counted if a representative population was actually surveyed. Sadly, it appears that only Link·age surveys tech ownership of the oldest, but that only encompasses their own constituency.

Consider the emerging general consumer technology market.  Google’s IPO was in 2004 and Facebook (coincidentally) emerged that year. Then the iPhone emerged in 2007, along with the now-declining Fitbit. Telehealth got its first big workout with veterans in 2007.  By the time of New Year’s Day in 2009, a handful of companies had already begun to offer sensor-based home monitoring – QuietCare (eventually becoming Care Innovations), Healthsense (acquired by GreatCall), GrandCare, WellAware (acquired by Healthsense), and a bit later, BeClose (folded into Alarm.com Wellness). Was this just too early for the home monitoring category? Probably. Or was it just too murky (and pricey) compared to the PERS market?

Compare to today.  So much change -- think about the impact of Voice First technologies. And optimism about growth, if the CTA 2019 Active Aging forecast of $29.8 billion by 2022 rings true. New startups are launching in home monitoring and fall detection – incorporating AI/video images, sensors, radar, motion and predictive analytics. But are innovators, particularly those focused on selling to the coveted senior living market, still running ahead of the awareness and tolerance of older adults, families and caregivers, not to mention the senior living industry?  Consider the penetration of technologies in senior living – if this 2017 survey is representative, it’s surprisingly low, for example in resident monitoring.  The Leading Age/CAST survey was not all that encouraging either. Finally, a new and unpleasant context has emerged – misuse, abuse of information about and for seniors, senior fraud, and the failure of background checking by trusted sources. 

Slow down, you move too fast.  Move fast and break things – that was once Facebook’s motto. Maybe not such a good idea any more – maybe today’s motto should be think first. Especially about the implications of an entirely ad-driven business model, free to the ‘user’ aka the product.   And ‘don’t be evil’ has been dropped from Google’s code of conduct – in time for 2019’s Justice Department anti-trust efforts to begin.

category tags: 

IoT and home monitoring, PERS, social media, cell phones, smartphones

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/ten-years-technology-older-adults-2009-2019

Five Health and Aging Tech Posts from May 2019

What does it mean when offerings and consumers aren’t aligned?  For older consumers and their families, the technology market and senior housing industry are two cases in point.  Consider the slower-growing 8(8% occupied) senior housing industry – where in ten years, 81% of couples will not be able to afford the $60,000 average cost of assisted living (a number that does not reflect higher cost memory care). Or mull over the technology industry, which is releasing new versions of every category faster than you can Google them, filling voids like adding mouse for the iPad.  Why did it not have a mouse in the first place?  Oh, yes, and it is an accessibility feature.  Still no headphone jack on the phone.  Or creating a folding phone (without much testing) with a screen that breaks within days of announcement. Did anyone ask for a phone that folds?  So in that vein, here are five blog posts, mostly rants, from May, 2019:

Older adult finances and future senior housing options are out of sync. A sad tale - reading the lament about the numbers of seniors who will not be able to afford assisted living in 10 years. The report is from NIC – the National Investment Center that provides research to the senior living industry. The upshot – 54% will be unable to pay the $60,000 average annual cost of assisted living (make that $93,000 in Washington DC), even if they sell their home. If one member of a couple is still living in the home, the number rises to 81%.  According to the study, 60% of the population aged 75+ will have mobility, cognitive impairment or chronic conditions that would characterize them as good candidates for assisted living services and settings – but will not have the savings to enable them to move in. Read more.

Five Virtual Reality technology offerings for older adults in 2019.In 2017, it was clear that virtual reality technology had evolved beyond the point of experiments and was having a number of limited introductions into the world of older adults, including senior living environments (Rendever) as well as pain mitigation (FirstHand). Virtual reality has made its way into the 'future of healthcare delivery' consulting, as firms like Care Innovations and Deloitte publish their how-to white papers.  For 2019, here are five VR offerings that specifically note benefits for older adults.  Read more.

Technology, Bad Design, and the Kitchen Pliers.  If you were lucky enough to read Don Norman’s rant in Fast Company, you must agree with his view of design and its mismatch with the needs of the elderly. You would agree with Don that today’s designs fail all people, not just the elderly.  Because you too have a pliers or wrench in your kitchen to twist tops off bottles and jars. You puzzle at how best to position a knife to release the suction on jars. You have a slippery front door handle that a person with hand arthritis could never open. You have a not-so-universal TV remote with 45 buttons on it, the smallest of which is ‘Mute’.  If you have another box, it has a remote, and perhaps another for stereo equipment and an stylishly confusing one for Apple TV. And that’s just one room. You frequently want to print from a device to a network printer, which requires a network, which requires a router, which needs an upgrade. Read more.

Technology non-adoption of tech by the oldest—it’s a bug, not a feature. Not adopting tech -- it's not okay. Lacking access to smartphones, Internet, in-home broadband/WiFi cuts oldest out of access to modern telehealth, communication and engagement, in-home sensors, outside-home GPS, fall detection, and device integration with smartphones. The issue of non-adoption, particularly as more health services move online, will become increasingly vexing for service providers of all types. Surveying of the oldest has fallen out of favor, though Link-ageConnect persists, thankfully -- see their 2019 report. But over the years much has been opined about the reasons – so here is some more opining. Read more.

Linkage – A rare survey of technology ownership among the oldest. When there’s nothing else to buy. Funny about technology ownership among the oldest – generally there is no way to know whether they own any or if would they buy it. Neither Pew (in 2018) nor AARP (2019 technology ownership) broke out upper age ranges. So Link·age Connect is an outlier that asks ownership questions and documents age breakdowns of responders, half of whom were age 75+. This 2019 Technology Survey of Older Adults Age 55-100, conducted online, notes that 80% of respondents (45% of whom live in senior-oriented communities/housing) have smartphones. At this point, if the mobile phone breaks, what’s the store rep going to promote, and it doesn’t matter which store? While they carry flip/feature phones, an iPhone or an Android phone can be used just like a flip phone. More than 50% of respondents have smart TVs (yes, that’s nearly all you can buy these days). Read more.

 

category tags: 

VR/AR technology, cell phones, smartphones, tablets

• 

from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/five-health-and-aging-tech-posts-may-2019