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Elderly reach for digital age
By Matthew
Fordahl, Associated
Press
October 4,
2003
Wireless
networks, fast Internet connections and smart kitchen appliances are the
rage in high-tech homes for the hip, young and well-to-do.
Slowly, the elderly are adapting to digital lifestyle technologies,
allowing them to stay longer in their homes, relieve burdens of
caregivers, and, ultimately, reduce health care costs.
It's a far cry from the rudimentary panic-button devices plugged by those
campy "Help, I've fallen, and I can't get up" TV commercials.
With the number of people age 65 or older expected to double to 70 million
by 2030, the business potential is huge - even if some high-tech companies
aren't sure how to approach a market so foreign to them.
"You almost call it an
aging bias," said Russ Bodoff, director of the Center for Aging
Services Technologies, a consortium of companies and universities.
"Companies like to be seen as young, innovative, sexy."
Getting older, he said, "is not something they like to be identified
with."
Yet some companies are recognizing the need.
Research projects now under way are studying the benefits of sensors that
can confirm a senior has awakened and used the bathroom, for example, and
kitchen appliances that remind dementia patients how to use the coffee
pot.
Semiconductor giant Intel Corp. has been working since April 2002 on
prototypes that incorporate networks of wireless sensors and digital
devices to issue medication reminders and even determine a senior's level
of activity.
Others, like General Electric Co., build on existing home security systems
and deploy simple motion detectors to watch for abnormal behavior.
In GE's project, called Home Assurance, networked wireless motion
detectors send data to a central device that resembles an answering
machine, which transmits data within seconds to a server at GE. Caregivers
can log into the server over the Internet to check up on someone or to set
up the system so it alerts them automatically by phone or e-mail.
Home Assurance has been a relief to Susan McDonough of suburban
Albany
,
N.Y.
, whose 74-year-old mother still lives alone
despite a recent stroke, open heart surgery and seizure.
"Did I ever think the Internet would be able to help me in this
manner? Absolutely not," McDonough said. "I'm given so much
comfort now when I log in to check."
So far, McDonough has not received any alerts, but she said the service
would have been invaluable in February when her mother suffered a seizure
and could not call for help.
"I would have known she never made it out of her room, and I would
have been at her bedside five hours earlier than I was," she said.
"This technology allows me to continue to live independently in my
home, which I value tremendously," said McDonough's mother, Mary, who
asked that her last name not be published because she lives alone. "I
also appreciate the opportunity to age with dignity."
GE hopes to commercialize the Home Assurance system next year, although
other projects will not be available for some time.
For its part, Intel plans to start installing prototypes of its system as
part of its research, then share what it learns with other companies in
the health care business.
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© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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