The approximately 73 million people who make up the baby boomer generation is expected to reach 65 and over by 2030. The general aging of the US population accompanies the need for increased home care technology for the elderly. This concern was explored during a session at Parks Associates Connected Health Summit 2022, Seniors and Caregivers: Living Independently.
The event focused on collecting and using data, remote patient monitoring devices and repurposing existing technologies to keep people safe at home and to ensure cost-effective and efficient care. home.
“We’re really seeing strong demand for technology that can proactively identify and respond to issues,” said Brandon Neustadter, vice president of sales for Kami Vision and KamiCare, a vision-based file management solution. that detects and reacts to falls.
Implementing preventative care and in-home sensors to detect an elderly person’s falls was also discussed by Andy Droney, Senior Director of ADT Health, in his keynote.
Droney said ADT is evaluating how to reinvent its traditional home-deployed sensors and systems to help with eldercare and potentially draw inferences to predict incidents.
“You think about activity levels, water intake. Are medications taken? How long or how well do people sleep? How often do they get up during the night? this data and provide potential insights,” Droney said.
“Maybe a combination of data we’re getting doesn’t necessarily require an ambulance, but it may require someone to check someone. Maybe it’s not even that we’ve seen strange things in the data that we got, but this is what’s happening: How can you jump in right off the bat and get a telehealth visit or get someone to urgent care, to their doctor, rather than to ‘have to send him to the emergency room or send an ambulance to pick him upstairs?
Remote patient monitoring and the use of devices to benefit caregivers and elderly people at home was a recurring topic throughout each session, as was the rise of telehealth services.
“The pandemic has illustrated the need to make communities much more livable. This means that services, amenities and features are available to individuals in their homes and larger communities to help support people as they age. “said Shannon Guzman, Director of Housing and Livable Communities. for AARP.
AARP developed a tool called the Livability Index, which rated communities for features such as accessible health services and high-speed internet, important for telehealth visits.
“There is this ambitious vision of technology and what it is capable of, whether it is RPM and telehealth or other technologies that work both in our communities of seniors and in the homes of the elderly. people. But there’s also a gap that has yet to be filled. That’s the digital divide that we all need to focus on and figure out how we can best bridge that so that these technologies can really achieve their maximum effectiveness. said Michael Skaff, director of information at the Jewish Senior Living Group in San Francisco.
Yet “all of these things are interconnected,” said Adam Greene, CEO and founder of Klaatch, a data-driven company focused on individual and community social connections.
“I think what’s important going forward is that people really need to be open to collaborating and coming to the table with that perspective, because I think there’s incredible technology out there right now. It is growing all the time,” he said.
“Seniors are showing that they are ready to adapt to this technology if it is introduced in the right way. I think if we start working together more, integrating our activities more, the likelihood that we can build what I would call a new community infrastructure really increases.”