November revealed a growing sense of urgency about older adults. What has been the impact on them of the daily onslaught of Covid-19 statistics? What about nine months of ceaseless updates about case counts? Has this produced a permanent fear of contact with others, including families, especially on holidays? Public-private partnerships are forming to bring devices and products to older adults, now isolated for as much as 9 months. Will that help? Tech firms are trying to boost access to the internet and devices – will this become 2021 action priority for non-profits and government? And much more will be different for an older population – the real seniors, aged 75+, perhaps previously unnoticed by media. In fact, older adults have often been ignored by marketers even as boomers have all the money. Here are four blog posts from November:
It’s already been a big year for new Amazon offerings that could benefit older people. This month’s most obvious change was the introduction of Amazon Care Hub, an Alexa app that can be used to help monitor potentially isolated older adults. But they also have done more work on Amazon Hospitality in partnership with K4Connect (which has rolled out 10,000 Alexa devices to senior living communities). One might well argue that Amazon has and will continue to have a major impact on the quality of life for older adults (assuming senior privacy concerns and technology barriers to adoption are overcome – more on that another time):
DENVER, Oct. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Routinify, the technology-based, remote healthcare solutions company, announced today its first quarter of revenue generation through a series of paid trials with organizations and academic campuses throughout Colorado. These trials have helped to provide proof of concept and acceptance of the innovative technology throughout the healthcare industry.
Venture interest in Aging in Place – is it a turning point? RockHealth, the "first venture fund dedicated to digital health”, has declared this year a turning point in the market of offerings for older adults (aka baby boomers, particularly those 65+). In their September, 2020 Aging in Place report, the authors note that demographics, regulatory and policy changes (aka reimbursement via Medicare Advantage plans), and Covid-19’s boosted use of digital health combine to make this a pivotal point. The oldest baby boomer, it should be mentioned, is 74 now, but the youngest is 56 and may have aging parents who could benefit, depending on health status, from these five offerings from that report. All text is from the websites of the vendors:
AUSTIN, TEXAS – March 10, 2020 – Intiva Health unveiled Ready Doc™ Messaging, the latest addition to its Ready Doc™ credentialing platform. A desktop application is immediately available for use by care teams of any size.
Ready Doc™ Messaging is an easy-to-use messaging app for smartphones or workstations that helps organizations improve health care team communication and collaboration while maintaining HIPAA-compliance.
J2 Global, Inc. – the leader in digital cloud faxing – announced today an unparalleled opportunity for healthcare providers to move from paper faxing to a comprehensive interoperability system through an easy-to-use platform that connects healthcare organizations through the entire continuum-of-care.
November revealed a growing sense of urgency about older adults. What has been the impact on them of the daily onslaught of Covid-19 statistics? What about nine months of ceaseless updates about case counts? Has this produced a permanent fear of contact with others, including families, 
It’s already been a big year for new Amazon offerings that could benefit older people. This month’s most obvious change was the introduction of 
Venture interest in Aging in Place – is it a turning point? 