Hope your mood and market experiences are perking up right along with the rising (!) consumer confidence. Companies continue to enter the market for products and services for boomers and seniors -- I am regularly hearing from them and writing about them -- and checking in with execs from firms that I previously wrote about.

For example, smart pill device MedSignals. After our chat, CTO Jerry Hahn sent me this Business Week article about AT&T research into fall detection -- giant firm sees market opportunity (and includes a great chart about how it might work). Intriguing and as Jerry noted -- a good sign, which should be helpful to both PERS and fall detection players.  MedSignals is our vendor of the month -- the talking pill box and wireless hub (or peripheral) for other bio monitor devices. And it is now dual language, translating English-generated instructions into Spanish and Dutch, with more languages down the road.

In the not-so-good-sign category, I'm back from the ALFA (Assisted Living Federation of America) conference in Philadelphia, placing the event into the context of the future of technology for aging in place. On balance, I was disappointed in the sparseness of resident-focused tech offerings within a sold-out exhibit hall of vendors. And a just published survey in McKnight's deepened my pessimism as to whether the senior housing industry will offer residents much in the way of technology near term (before 2013!).

In addition to keynoting in Silicon Valley at the Boomer Venture Summit in June, I am pleased about speaking invitations for both the September 21-22 ASA conference in Philadelphia and Connected Health in Boston (October 21-22). I hope I can catch up with folks at either or both.

In the blog and link corner, we are now posting Laura Rossman's Money and Boomers blog, as well as links to some interesting sites: NSLPN (nursing home careers) and SilverPlanet (senior resources).And check out our post on the use of videos to replace 1000 words of marketing.

Key blog entries from the past month:

Twitter Quitters: Considering the Nielsen stat on the 60% of twitter users who depart after one month, here are observations and advice to marketers about use and misuse of this tool -- either the greatest thing since sliced bread or just another social computing pet rock.

Giving nursing homes (and ALFs) a break:  With all of the hype (including mine, I admit it!) about aging in one's own home, it's important to remember that in our frailest years, maybe home isn't the best choice. This was inspired by a Washington Post feature about the shortage and low pay of home care workers. It hammered what is now a cliche -- seniors (and their families) fear nursing homes more than death itself. Yet again, we learned that seniors want to stay in their homes, no matter how frail, how lonely, no matter what. Give it a rest. Home isn't perfect and some CCRCs, ALFs and nursing homes can offer far superior and more sociable care.

The IBM vision for the 'Medical Home'. To be fair, IBM's newly published vision document isn't about the home at all -- it's about empowering the Primary Care Physican (PCP) with information. Sigh -- a misnomer like this should be de-mystified by the document. The report contains complex and brilliant ideas that made the terminology seem even less appropriate. The idea seems eminently unworkable in today's tangled and dysfunctional care reimbursement and delivery system.

Still thinking about strategies for certification of housing and service providers in technology for aging in place, wondering where the right home for such certification might be. And I'm offering a 'getting started' custom research package of consulting to be scheduled for this summer. I'm hoping to learn more about your firm, your organization's interest in aging in place technology, and your thoughts about its future, as well as about health and technology in the home (research is underway for the next report!).

That's it for May!

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