Upcoming webinar to explore age tech challenges and trends

The capability to live comfortably in one’s property or local community securely, independently and comfortably can minimize overall health treatment prices, stay away from or delay admission to institutional treatment, and relieve the tension on family members caregivers.

A lot of more mature adults and their caregivers rely on technological innovation to support them age in place. From Alexa-form units to on line grocery shipping to artificially intelligent sensors which keep an eye on frailty, there’s no question that the correct devices employed properly can improve safety and peace of intellect for each elders and their caregivers.

With a growing populace of persons over the age of 60 and a shrinkage of caregivers, age tech — digital technologies constructed close to the needs and wishes of more mature grown ups, is becoming a booming marketplace. In truth, the age tech industry is expected to attain $2 trillion, according to The Gerontechnologist’s 2021 Age Tech Marketplace Map.

Age tech can aid older persons (or caregivers) watch just about almost everything — from medicine reminders to when the fridge was final opened to how numerous instances an elder received up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. When several more mature adults are snug with and even embrace engineering, there are also some downsides. Products can be abandoned because they possibly are unsuccessful to live up to preliminary claims or are way too complex, way too invasive or just also substantially of a headache, according to researchers. Some elders are not comfortable with the trade-offs between more protection and perceived or genuine decline of privateness. And then, there are troubles of affordability, access and the electronic divide.

“For more mature grownups, it is imperative to provide an integrated smart alternative, not just clever technologies,” writes Laurie Orlov, founder of Getting older and Health Technologies Watch, wherever she delivers assessment and advice about traits that enable more mature persons and boomers to boost their good quality of lifetime.

Orlov is just one of the industry experts talking at AHCJ’s approaching webinar, Getting older in area technological innovation: challenges and traits, on April 6 at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PT.

What do families want to be certain their liked types keep risk-free and wholesome? Panelist Leslie Kernisan, M.D., M.P.H., a geriatrician, and founder of betterhealthwhileaging.net, will glimpse at true needs that crop up when an older adult tries to age in put. What complications do they (and often, the loved ones) finish up hoping to address?

Talking of options —Jeffrey Kaye, M.D., director of ORCATECH (Oregon Heart for Getting older & Technological innovation) at Oregon Wellness & Science University and a professor of neurology and biomedical engineering at the university, will highlight ORCATECH’s Life Lab, which could be a national growing old-in-position engineering product. Kaye is primary a multi-web site, nationwide study funded by the Countrywide Institutes of Well being and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Numerous persons think seniors are not interested in technological know-how. But they have tested they can change to an at any time-evolving technologies landscape as perfectly as other age teams, according to an report on SeniorLiving.org. In accordance to the write-up, much more than 50 % of more mature grown ups acquired a new tech product in 2019, this kind of as a smartphone, laptop computer personal computer or intelligent home machine. And an approximated 75% of older grown ups with an internet link report using it everyday.

A new College of Michigan review surveyed people ages 50-80 about their use of and curiosity in mobile well being applications. Twenty-eight p.c claimed employing at the very least one mobile overall health application. Overall, 34% of more mature adults claimed they use or have used apps for workout, 22% for diet, 20% for excess weight decline and 17% for slumber, in accordance to the report.

Popular know-how for seniors incorporates points like meals shipping service apps, transportation and journey-sharing cellular apps, and video clip chatting plans to keep up with grandchildren and other folks. There are even virtual retirement communities in which seniors can keep in their very own properties but be element of a membership business that will help seniors make professional medical appointments, or get a handyman to make repairs.

Some 268 this kind of “villages” with more than 40,000 associates exist in the U.S., and an supplemental 70 are in advancement, Kaiser Wellbeing News claimed lately. They are not nonetheless a mass-current market option for growing older in spot, the report stated, but they are supplying social connections by means of message boards this sort of as dialogue teams, courses, or outings, or other social activities.

Journalists attending the webinar should really stroll away with a range of story angles and suggestions from our industry experts. We hope you can join us!

Assets

 

Liz Seegert, primarily based in New York City, is AHCJ’s matter leader on getting old. Karen Blum is an unbiased journalist and AHCJ’s main topic chief on health IT.