Aging and Health Technology Watch

AARP fielded a survey that is worth a look. The topic was health and wellness app usage by the 50+ population. The goal was to understand 50+ level of engagement with health and wellness apps – an online survey that included 694 individuals who owned smartphone or tablet.   Interestingly the 15-minutes survey also includes a response comparison with 40-49 year-olds, likely because that is AARP’s next-up target membership. Responders needed to be comfortable with downloading a health and wellness app -- and have interest in trying them. 

It’s a bad sign when you get a warning from Amazon about Prime scams.  Shopping online has definitely deteriorated when you receive a desperate email from Amazon warning about Amazon Prime scams.  But their advice is worrisome – you should check Amazon Messages to verify that a message is really from Amazon?  How hard can it be for a scammer to fake messages that look like they’re from Amazon? Did you know that Amazon Prime Day is a big day for scammers? The Better Business Bureau warns about lookalike websites, too-good-to-be-true social media ads, and unsolicited emails or calls during sales events this month. You might not know that "1,230 new websites that associated themselves with Amazon popped up in June. The vast majority were malicious or appeared suspicious, according to Check Point."

Technology has enhanced the world for those with vision limitations. As many as 50 million Americans have some degree of vision loss -- a problem that was poorly addressed by technology prior to the arrival of smartphone navigation, smart glasses, sensors, robotics and AI in nearly all devices and technologies. Today, it's a whole new and innovative world -- supportive of individuals with a range of vision limitations from low vision to completely blind.  And in fact, today those who are blind can use haptics to follow a game in real time, even in a stadium.  They can create presentations from data sets, read road signs down the road, navigate airports and safely make their way through obstacle-filled streets.  Here are five technology enablers that will likely make a difference:

The population is aging – and still, the tech solution market is immature.  Investors of all types demonstrate interest in a product here and an offering there.  Competitions highlight product winners; money is raised for one product at a time.  One reason for the immaturity of the market is the behavior of buyers. Senior living companies buy a product for this and an offering for that. The future is predicted to incorporate new technology like AI – but that is always ‘in the future.’ Everyone agrees that AI could enhance retirement living and healthcare, but deployment of new offerings is always described as in the future. No other software categories in tech history – consider office, finance, supply chain –  remain a laundry list of point products when markets expect suites.

Don’t we already have technology to live our best life as we age?  Absolutely, as predicted in 2011, needs have been fulfilled, tech innovation has made it so. But do older adults know about it?  Could they afford it?  Could they deploy it in their homes? Will it enable them to age in place?  Do investors view the ‘best life’ suite of capabilities as an opportunity worthy of funding? The process of pitching one product at a time is well established – and innovators are comfortable with it, as are their judges.  But is that what older adults need?  Or would a suite of offerings, with deployment before the need becomes urgent, make more sense?  Here are the four blog posts from June, 2024:

Losses to scams continue to grow.  One wonders if there is an entire funding source somewhere that pumps money into new and scam incarnations – like the voice cloning scam (this is your panicky daughter! Send money!).  Around forever, though, remember the laundry list beginning with Medicare and Social Security (goal – get money), Publisher’s Clearinghouse (goal – identity theft) and many others per Google AI.  It all added up to $3.4 billion in 2023.

The 2024 media message touts aging in place. It’s what everyone wants to do, even those with homes that are difficult to navigate, long distances from family, and must have major modifications to enable remaining there. Yet you read this message nearly every week  -- Next Avenue lauds the benefits, sponsored by Lively from Best Buy Health.  Fortune tests home monitoring systems they say are critical to Aging in Place.  And USA Today publishes a survey that underscores the desire to age in place. So what is the market of tech that will support this goal?  AARP calls it AgeTech – and has a startup directory of new entrants, including categories of health, mobility, caregiving and more.  But that is a list, not a solution.

Older adults today are beneficiaries of widespread tech access. And it really does fulfill the 2011 prediction in the AARP report, Connected Living for Social Aging.  Broad access to online capabilities was imagined by experts when that report was written.  They knew that someday high speed Internet access, widespread use of social networks, online access to food delivery, health appointments, shopping, holding video gatherings with families at holidays – all taken for granted now, but then it was just a dream. The good news is that most older adults take advantage of these and many capabilities today. Internet access today is being delivered out to remote rural areas – and most of the 65+ will soon be connected. Then what is the next quality of life frontier for older adults?  

An old report, the core concept of Connected Living was excellent and predictive.  Thirteen years ago, AARP sponsored research that posed questions about technology’s future role in connecting older adults with families, resources and each other. With input from 30 industry experts, the research attempted to determine how technology could better serve older adults moving forward. The result was a 2011 report called Connected Living for Social Aging: Designing Technology for All. You won’t find it on AARP’s website – it’s too old.  But it is very interesting, especially given that year's low technology adoption and extremely limited use among older adults compared to today. The report accurately predicted the major role technology would take in their lives as they aged, though experts were not exactly sure how.

The month of May -- and the hostility about AI overflowed.  Given the pace of change in AI technology – both the software and its rate of adoption – it’s curious that recently the Wall Street Journal published an aging survey about what customers don’t use and/or like about chatbots. These observations include the usual: ‘hallucinated’ answers; lack of customer awareness that they are talking to a chatbot (really???); the chatbot is too nosy. Or it asked too many questions; or couldn’t handle two questions. Which would make this article, like much of media coverage of AI, sound negative. Too late, adoption happened anyway. This is a commentary, perhaps, on the nature of news media in general, who either are mirroring the AI skepticism in the public, or more typically promoting it. But clearly with chatbot adoption, the public is paying new attention. Sigh.  Here are the four blog posts from May, 2024: