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These are interesting and disturbing times for boomer-turning senior consumers of health care.  The oldest baby boomers have turned 70. Some might even call them seniors. They are more likely than their parents to have chronic diseases, and 39% of baby boomers are obese. They are presented with rising health care costs, although real wages are barely growing. So what is the health tech sector inventing to help boomers span this disconnect between health, healthcare costs, and incomes?  Investors are becoming disillusioned with the array of tools have emerged that have only a tangential effect, including health apps they won’t download – and if they did, wearables that are not necessarily accurate or may not be secure. And so far, workplace health incentives that are not yet necessarily effective.

Digital Health became Health IT when you weren’t looking.  Even as most caregivers become reliant on online information in 2016, the sources of that information are migrating their way to Health Tech, so says MobilHealth News. And just in time, as the funding bubbles appear to be bursting in later stages, reliability of some wearables has been questioned, and the information disclosed to third parties (like insurance or health-related companies) may not be well understood by the consumer.  

Is there more caregiving gold in those Silicon Valley hills?  The CES gadget landscape was, on the one hand, rich with cool wearables fitness and smart cars and clothes.  And on the other hand, there were quite a few sessions about health and caregiving, Doctors see a pushy tech industry that isn’t helping them provide better care, never mind without the doctor – though poor healthcare apps could be costly for hospitals. But the biggest the biggest surprise last week was when AARP/Parks Associates released a report about the super-sized, ginormous 'caregiving' tech opportunity in the upcoming period, that is starting now, of 2016-2020.

More CES innovations, announcements -- and vice versa.  It's another day (and the last day) of 2016 CES, including more from Eureka Park and Digital Health exhibitors -- please note yesterday's set of six.  Were these the best ideas or the best of CES? Not necessarily -- but they could be useful to older adults -- the reason for inclusion here.  It may seem strange to see long-established companies and literally website-free startups in the same list below. But that is the wonderful thing about CES -- all are walking around breathing the same air and like last year, overwhelming the similarly enormous crowds. Here are five that caught my eye:

Find the needle in the CES haystack.  That’s not easy, since there were 3200 exhibits last year and 170,000 attendees, with this year’s totals for the show not out just yet.   The Consumer Technology Association -- renamed from Consumer Electronics Association -- wants to be new, as the 500 startups in the Eureka Park exhibit area must have figured out by now. And the plethora of health exhibitors and speakers at the Digital Health Summit act as testimony to the importance of health and then there are the CES essentials: stereo/headphones, smartphones, sensor/wearables, smarter cars, sensory experiences and sleep -- not necessarily together or in that order. And the mostly young attendees will be excited to find an age suit to add 40 years to their age. No kidding.