digital health

Recent announcements, interesting offerings are worth a look. AARP recently completed the judging process for its Innovation Champion Awards; and upcoming, the Boomer Venture Summit in Berkeley in July, will select business plan startup winners – see last year’s winner.  Here are six technology-enabled offerings (some in market, some in process of getting to market) that can be helpful to older adults and those who care for them and about them (listed in alphabetical order): 

In 2017, has telehealth and remotely-delivered care evolved? Compared to our published research dated 2011, times may have changed. As surveys have indicated, the healthcare industry is interested and more committed to mainstream use of telehealth technologies.  And telehealth vendors want to help doctors and patients gain mutual benefit of care provided at home versus hospital, especially to lower care delivery costs; augment care for patients in locations far from a specialist or during off-hours; and continue growing the ability of patients and families to self-monitor chronic disease.  In 2016, CMS published a list of covered telehealth services, and no doubt commitment to cost reductions (and reimbursements) in the coming years will result in an expanded list and further industry commitment.  Perhaps ATA's smaller conference will evolve to become part of other sets of conferences, like Connected Health in Boston or part of the ever-growing HiMSS conference collection.

How tough is it to highlight tech innovation that could help older adults?  Pretty tough, judging by the accelerator pitch event winners at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference (etcetera) held this week in Austin. Even the hearing-loss tech winner, Sound Scouts, was pitched as a screening tool for children. And no joke, one of the winners, Laugh.ly, was a streaming app for stand-up comedy. Yay! So prior to next week's older-adult events in Chicago, here are new tech offerings drawn from those listed in the 2017 Technology Market Overview. Content is from their company websites:

Is there a difference between health tech and aging tech? A friend told me about a comment from an arrogant investor (that may seem redundant to some). The observation was that ‘aging’ was not important, health is THE topic and subsumes (overrides) aging. Do you buy that? Just ask my daily alerts or search yourself for the term 'aging seniors.'  See that the list starts with NCOA and improving the lives of older adults.  Okay, now do the same for 'digital health' (investment north of $4 billion in 2016). Other than a few blog posts, there is virtually no intersection.  And as for VC focus on the aging demographic?

Partners’ Connected Health Symposium 2016 – note the aging opportunity. Over the years of this event, a session here and a speaker there occasionally talked about an aging society – and what it means. But aging is today’s health business reality. First, the first keynote was about the innovation opportunity – delivered by AARP’s JoAnn Jenkins.  The pitch-off event ‘supporting cognitive function as we age’ also included AARP judges viewing submissions of the four finalists – and the Avatar for tracking health and exercise that won.  Upcoming: the 2017 merger of this conference into the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHA) and its Connected Health Conference event (formerly known as the mHealth Summit). With material from the firms themselves, 2016 innovation winners included: