Laurie Orlov's blog

This is truly special.  Business Week has devoted a special report to Aging in Place. We've seen newspaper and magazine articles, usually on the social curiosity or human interest aspect of using technology to help seniors. In this case, there are many, many small vendors and organizations who are investing and slowly growing their businesses that will serve us as we age.

Why does this bug me? It sounds so good. Another state as described in today's NY Times article, this time Pennsylvania, uses federal funds and state Medicaid money (totaling $1.75 billion) to move individuals from a nursing home out into the community.

Following the post I did on the Philips call center, one anonymous comment was quite critical of the service, particularly in terms of response time. I assume this was written by a departed Lifeline employee who has joined another company, which is the reason for it being anonymous.  Okay, fine.

Yay! Heal for America is an idea whose time may be just in time for the aging in place of boomers and seniors. No doubt you've been reading for years about 'Teach for America' -- a much sought program for those newly minted college grads, these 'best and the brightest' want to inject their enthusiasm and energy into teaching in public schools, often in areas of the country where talent is most scarce.

This is a rant. I am tired of youth-oriented tech vendors with their back-to-school laptops.  I am tired of how clumsy and non-intuitive most computing technologies are -- especially home networks. I am convinced that vendors like Apple, Cisco, Dell, HP, Intel, and Microsoft must be populated with thirty-somethings who design products for themselves and their inner geek. (Gee, why have a device that can be plugged in and just works? Instead, why don't we just add these 14 configuration steps?).

Get this. A Dallas article that advised homeowners to Senior-proof their house so you don't have to move later says universal design is now Hot.

This was an interesting week if you want to think about living to 100. Evercare offered up its 2009 Evercare 100@100 Survey -- which included survey results from college seniors. Dr.

I was fortunate to have an experience this week listening on calls when the Philips Lifeline pendant was activated.

Devices, devices, everywhere. I guess I just don't get telehealth-related technology 'progress' -- it seems like two steps forward in one area and a few backward somewhere else. On the one hand, there will be 15 million mobile and wireless telehealth devices by 2012, says an ABI July 22 research report, devices that will be jabbering away with information about our chronic disease measurement readings.

Yeah, yeah, Skype is cool for boomers and seniors -- especially grandparents. Free video conferencing with the grandkids and free long-distance calls -- even if some of them are a bit flaky in quality, probably due to a poor Internet connection. And the teaser (of course) is to upgrade you to their low, low international long distance phone plans.