Laurie Orlov's blog

The planes are becoming full of holiday travelers... At Thanksgiving time, I wrote a blog post about visits with aging family members -- and being on the lookout to see if they need help remaining independent.  In that post, there were links to videophones, eBook devices, computers with cameras, and a variety of other useful items that you may have noticed could be helpful.

Caregiving -- by older women, for older women. The new report, Caregiving in the U.S.

Microsoft and AARP -- boomers and technology.

The Business of Aging -- or Aging and Implications? Just came back from a stimulating conference in a delightful and sophisticated city -- Toronto. Sponsored by the Government of Ontario and the MaRS Discovery District, this conference was titled 'The Business of Aging'.

GE buying Living Independently Group doesn't matter. While a bit of noise is being made, this has no significance in the near term and I suspect little money was spent on this compared to the sizable sum that must have been spent to market LIG's offering since its launch in 2003, first unsuccessfully to consumers, then to senior housing or

I have heard from a number of folks in recent months about the businesses they are starting, some number of whom have published what they want to do or are doing on the Forum link on this site.  So I would like to ask and answer a few questions about doing so. In particular:

As we celebrate our holidays (or don't) -- maybe surrounded by our aging parents (or maybe not) -- let's give some thought to how older people connect with others, stay safe and well, and keep on contributing to the world around them. Here are five reminders about care about our older relatives, things we can all initiate, that have some technology elements. This advice is, of course, easier to give than it is to follow.

This has been going on for some time -- the slow or no growth in the home security industry -- and the potential for expanding into a new line of business offering Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), aka 'medical alarms'. This security industry article outlines the great opportunity for home security providers and their 'rapid response' (RMR) call center vendors.

Music therapy on iPods. Let's start with a quote from today's WSJ article, which gets right to the point: "Ann Povodator, an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient in Boynton Beach, Fla., listens to her beloved opera and Yiddish songs every day on an iPod with her home health aide or her daughter when she comes to visit.

November is National Caregivers Awareness Month -- and with those 85+ turning out to be the fastest growing population in the US, we know there are many stressed caregivers out there. And more to come, with 65% of those over 65 will require some long-term care during their lives.