digital health

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:

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?  

Refresh required.  Each year, the Technology for Aging Market Overview is revised in January of the new year.  This year, that revision is being published right after CES 2024, which featured multiple offerings of possible utility to older adults, especially those with physical limitations.  The purpose of the document, however, is to aggregate and review trends from 2023 that shape 2024, technology changes that matter, and offer, by category, a sampling of products, services, and sites of relevance to the older adult market.  As such, the report is intended for those businesses (for-profit, non-profit) and services that want and need to serve the older adult segment.