Back from the Alzheimer's Association of the Northwest. Walking the aisles of the exhibit floor, one could get the impression that the key for family members and professionals is finding a good home care agency or assisted living placement. Which reminds me, that despite the best of intentions in the aging services worlds, I rarely see evidence that it is at the top of the priority lists of these organizations to ensure that those they serve know what technologies might be of some benefit to them. (The exception is LeadingAge (formerly AAHSA) which has sponsored CAST -- check out the link that LeadingAge CAST has just released an analysis of state payments for Aging Services Technologies (AST).   But I digress, here are some technologies to mitigate various issues confronted by caregivers -- some mentioned previously in random posts.  Please comment with other suggestions or any feedback about these vendors or suggest additional products:

Early 2011 was prolific for published studies. If you print all these, it's gonna get expensive. Click on the Trends link on this site and you will be awed and/or inspired -- nine studies have been posted since the start of this year, three on mobile devices and health.  The lemming effect is surely in play here: so much interest (not to mention conferences), so many apps in the iTunes App Store -- oh wait, in the top 10, we have a white noise generator and 3 weight-loss apps -- and further down the list, more white noise generators, apps for runners, baby names, mood tracking and apps about quite a few other bodily functions -- to say that the list is broadly inclusive as 'Healthcare & Fitness' is to understate.

National Alliance for Caregiving's study -- very revealing. In January, NAC published a report sponsored by United Healthcare which surveyed how caregivers view technology.* The 1000 online responders were all caregivers (providing at least five hours per week of unpaid care) and already were users of some sort of tech, as little as doing online searches for information. The report views these as 'technology-using caregivers', a somewhat alarming label in the context of their responses: