It's October and pumpkins and conferences all around. And where I have spent most of the month, it seems is wandering from conference to conference glimpsing leaves and pumpkins en route. First Connected Health Symposium in Boston, then NYU Wagner Global Health Aging in NYC, and tomorrow,  Technology and Aging at UCLA. The implications of an aging society are top of mind at all three. Intersecting agendas have overlapping themes -- aging begets chronic disease, which requires technology in the home to drive down cost and improve outcomes; boomers are aging and global society won't be able to deal with the onslaught; technology can help improve the lives of seniors today. 

A sense of urgency, an inability of professionals to cope. Despite repeated citing of global aging trends and the inadequacy of an adequate able-bodied and employed younger generation to care for them, one thought is to generate awareness for UCLA members of an inter-generational UGADA college initiative for boosting awareness of Alzheimer's disease. They noted: only 11 percent of medical schools offer any gerontology rotation these days -- not rational at the front end of an age and Alzheimer's population wave.

Are chronic disease sufferers patients -- or are they people with chronic disease? Healthcare centricity seems to dominate the language of so many medically-trained professionals who see a population suffering from chronic disease as they age, but don't yet see them as aging people with significant social needs who happen to have a chronic disease.  Meanwhile, funds are drying up for senior community programs (like adult day programs) and it is difficult in this anti-nursing home period we seem to be in to fund repair of basic nursing home infrastructure in poorer populations as described by Ellen Parish, VP of Quality at Isabella Geriatric Center in northern Manhattan.

Intergenerational disconnects may confound collaboration. Yesterday I read the NY Times business page ranted about the wrong-headed $250 check per senior ($13 billion of unfunded compensation for the missing cost-of-living increase). And I had an interesting conversation with a Gen-X entrepreneur who wished the boomer wave would pass more quickly -- and get them out of the way of lifestyles, business interests, and energy of younger generations -- who are going to find themselves as a too-small support structure for the coming age wave.  We have a land mine ahead of us -- as boomers age into seniors (just a bit more than a year away), let's ask the question: will younger people care about and also care for them as a society? Or just as it has been with today's boomers and their parents -- caring is adhoc, personal and family specific, not political and societal.

Blog posts from the past month:

Reaching an older audience -- indirectly but effectively. For those who are struggling with using the 'age' word in marketing their products, perhaps they want building off Arlene Harris' statement about focusing on a characteristic (in her case simplicity of design) and then seeking the channels that find the right aged audience. Or just call every product and service 'healthcare' and see what happens.

Training the senior value chain -- versus gadget sales. I worry about selling gadgets to family members and seniors who have no idea of the associated process, how-to FAQ, long-term implications for the user or caregivers. I gave some thought to definition of that value chain and identification of what vendors should include with all product marketing.

Caregiver portals and senior care directories -- these are a muddle to me and I suspect to many others, so I attempted to tease out business models, which produced some commentary (and additional posting of other examples) from those in the industry.  As in previous generations of portal madness, there are too many, too confusing, and he/she with the best search optimization, business relationships and participant community involvement will likely succeed.

Given the patient/people, our vendor of the month has got to be GrandCare Systems and Charlie Hillman (a co-panelist in Boston). GrandCare's sensor-based monitoring system addresses the social, monitoring, caregiver, and health issues in a single system. This is a conceptual model that more vendors need to embrace. And if I can nominate a second one, it would be the very new FloH Club, launched help older people get help with technology like computers and networks.

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All the best wishes for a great November,

Laurie Orlov