Telehealth-RPM-Virtual Visits-Voice Health

The Harvard study describes a bleak care future. And the NORC study underscores the housing problem for the Forgotten Middle. Life expectancy for the 65+ is another 20 years on average.  But only 14% of Americans can afford long-term care in the home. And if they could afford it, only 4% of their homes are aging-ready. Nor are they telehealth-ready – where 36% of Americans do not have high-speed internet in the home. For low-income individuals, home and community based services may have a 3-year wait to obtain them. Further, 42% of women aged 75+ live alone. 

Setting the stage for The Future of Care Work research.  Did you know that the number of workers per social security beneficiaries continues to shrink? That two-thirds of doctors and nurses are experiencing moderate or a great deal of burnout at work.  That over 85% of US adults suffer from one chronic illness.  That 33% of those aged 85+ have Alzheimer’s or dementia?  These points and more are the backdrop for the upcoming November report, The Future of AI and Care Work. Meanwhile, here are five points from September, 2023.

 Aging 2.0, from very small to very big. Begun in 2012 through the efforts of Katy Fike and Stephen Johnston.  The goal: address the biggest challenges and opportunities in aging. In 2021, Aging 2.0, at that point with "40,000-plus innovators in 130 chapters across 31 countries," was acquired by the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council.  Despite denial that this acquisition was not changing the mission, it has migrated from its long-time loosely connected chapters with a few members here to a thousand there. Louisville ownership has transformed both its members and sponsorship -- senior living, skilled nursing, healthcare, insurers.  Here are five exhibitors/content from the Aging 2.0 Optimize event beginning today in Louisville:

AI hype, fear and loathing are on the agenda.  Today marks the 10^th month since the near hysteria surrounding the arrival and rapid adoption of ChatGPT.  It struck fear into the hearts of many, redirecting programmers (see arrival of Google Bard).  Forrester’s CEO George Colony just predicted the death of search and the web as we know it – his American Airlines flight experience is instructive (see the GenAI Imperative). The Gartner hype cycle on AI is now published – and predicts, of course, a future plateau in generative AI.  And finally, to cap things off, today the big guns of the tech industry, will spend seven hours behind closed doors discussing how to regulate AI.  

The halfway point -- research about Future of Care Work. Each interviewee was asked for thoughts in the context of the categories suggested by ChatGPT and any other categories that will improve the work processes for those in the care-related industries – home care, home healthcare, senior living care (including nursing homes), and hospital discharge processes to any of those. Few conversations focused on ChatGPT – instead it became apparent that innovation, including AI, is underway to optimize care work, focus on the workforce, and help keep care recipients at home: