Staying up-to-date by rounding up recent announcements. As the recently published 2016 Technology Market Overview noted, most older adults will remain in their own homes, served by home/companion and home healthcare providers and assisted by a variety of tech-enabled products and services. Over the past month, new offering announcements have that can help seniors, care providers (family and professional) meet the objective of remaining at home. Here are five, noting as always, that all material is provided from the websites/announcements from the companies themselves.
(NEW YORK)—HERO, a Brooklyn-based health technology company, debuts the HERO smart appliance, the world’s first household companion for managing vitamins and medicines. HERO is now available for pre-order at an early bird price of $399 at herohealth.com. HERO is built in Brooklyn and expected to ship in early Summer 2016.
The romantic notion of aging in place is becoming a necessity, not a goal. The 2016 Technology Market Overview is complete. Median net worth of the 75+ age range is now $156,000, inclusive of home equity. This is deferring moves to assisted living – its move-in age now a mid-80’s and frailer demographic. But boomers are right behind them – and even less able to move in. They have simply not saved enough – holding an average retirement savings portfolio of only $136,000 – enough for just two years of a private assisted living community like Brookdale. And worse, the average 65-year-old enters retirement years with an unprecedented level of debt.
Davenport, Iowa – October 28, 2015 – The newly released Silver Spaces™ mobile app offers a simple IOS application for seniors, their families, health professionals, remodelers, builders, service providers and those who care about and for seniors. Safety and security in the home becomes a valid concern as the population ages and this app offers a room by room checklist, both interior and exterior, that defines what changes could be made to make it more resident-friendly.
Six years ago, you had to make the case for tech. Why was it useful to describe a market of technology that could help people live longer in their homes? It was necessary to justify this lens with demographic projections, costs of aging somewhere else, how many wanted to stay in their homes – and then, only then – start describing enabling technologies that could help facilitate their own or family member’s successful aging at home. The tech market was filled with passionate founders and niche, senior-focused products. That was then.
In the exhibit hall, there is often hope, sometimes disappointment. Startups hope for a committed investor, the inked partnership. Or perhaps a positive nod from a health firm or senior-housing community -- sell-once, deploy-many. At the mHealth Summit, now a HIMSS property as part of the multi-show Connected Health Summit, the obvious signal sent by HIMSS was its lack of interest in mobile and wearable mHealth – the summit was just one of several events scheduled at the same time. Attendees looked at the relatively limited scale of the show, noted its IT emphasis, compared to previous – some very big players did not even bother to participate (Walgreens, but not CVS?). Too much health IT, not enough mhealth? Or is all health tech now actually health IT?
