healthcare

The US faces a shortage of professional in-home care workers.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected both the growing availability of home care jobs and the shortage of people to fill them. Some states will confront daunting shortages within the next few years: Minnesota will need to fill almost 60,000 direct-care and support positions by 2020, particularly as the state shifts funding toward care in the community rather than in nursing facilities.  The problem is worse in Alaska – where many care workers are nearing retirement age themselves.  Over time, as AARP has predicted, the care gap will widen as boomer population ages – and their care needs catch up with them.  And finally, in nursing, the future has arrived. “Between 2006 and 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (2007) projected that registered nurse job growth in the home healthcare sector (39.5%) will be larger than in the hospital sector (21.6%).” 

Another convention, apparent consumer progress in using health data. HIMSS (the Las Vegas mega get-together about transforming health through IT) is wrapping up and with it are the press releases. Several surveys hit the streets this past week that could make health tech investment enthusiasts see progress if they forget that investment funds (and end user pilots) may be drying up. For example, the Accenture global survey noted that app and wearable use for managing their health doubled since 2014, from 16% to 33%.  And the 1-liner that Accenture wants you to know? "Research shows patients in the United States want a heavy dose of digital." Well, some of them, maybe.

These are interesting and disturbing times for boomer-turning senior consumers of health care.  The oldest baby boomers have turned 70. Some might even call them seniors. They are more likely than their parents to have chronic diseases, and 39% of baby boomers are obese. They are presented with rising health care costs, although real wages are barely growing. So what is the health tech sector inventing to help boomers span this disconnect between health, healthcare costs, and incomes?  Investors are becoming disillusioned with the array of tools have emerged that have only a tangential effect, including health apps they won’t download – and if they did, wearables that are not necessarily accurate or may not be secure. And so far, workplace health incentives that are not yet necessarily effective.