Internet use reduces depression in the elderly by 20%. Whew. I've got to read those news alerts more carefully -- looks like I missed quite a bit of press about the October 15 announcement of a Phoenix Center Policy Paper of data analysis and conclusion by George Ford and Sherry Ford. The news articles about the study are quite confusing -- mixing up terminology (elderly? seniors?) so let's look more closely at the process that produced the conclusion.
The truth about cars. As a society, we're not getting any younger. And our driving is going to imperil us, sooner or later, as this Times article painfully illustrates.
Woohoo -- Internet usage is up. Those of us who are technology enthusiasts get all excited with this sort of data (from Pew Research, January, 2009): "The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 can be seen in the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online." And 24% of those age 75-84 are online.
Reimbursement pain is so last-year. The 2008 Connected Health Symposium was, I thought, a somewhat gloomy affair -- gnashing of teeth and hand wringing over government and insurer footdragging, limited market penetration, and still no reimbursement for remote monitoring and other telehealth technologies. This year, despite a worsening economy, the mood was much perkier.
Another rant. So you have to read the report but you don't have to like it. That's the MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) report on retirees and the gap between wanting to work and actually finding work.
In the previous blog post, I talked about process and systems (versus gadget) approaches to promoting technologies for aging in place -- the example used was 'alerting' technologies. Marketing any system, however, must overcome the twin barriers of lack of awareness and inexperience with:
"The more things change the more they remain the same." It's been over a year since I posted a criticism of the 'gadget' approach to technologies for aging in place. Rather than randomly selected gadgets and gizmos, I suggested a more structured way of thinking about the market -- I referred to as 'the senior value chain'. Let's recap from 9/23/08 with a few additions:
You know and I know that all older adults do not love and relate to their computers. And their computers are not loveable. I will spare you a rant this time and not count the ways.
At least with directory sites -- you basically know where you stand -- somewhere in them is a business model for listing long-term care housing and service directory entries, referring and being compensated for leads about those entries, and advertising. Not so with caregiving portals. Here, if there is a business motive, it's about advertising and a cut of the commerce, if any, on the site.
Recently Caring.com (targeting family caregivers) acquired Gilbert Guide (a senior care directory, also aimed at family caregivers) -- combined firm gets more critical mass and content than either had separately. What happens now and is it significant? I talked with Caring.com's CEO Andy Cohen and Gilbert Guide's CEO Jill Gilbert to try to figure it out.
