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"Good
morning Teddy. How are you today?" "Pretty good, thanks
Tanaka-san," comes the reply. "Have you remembered to take your
pills? It's the pink ones this morning," the robot bear continues. A
scene from AI 2 or a vision of a slightly over-cooked future nanny state?
Actually, it's here and now in Japan, and could be just around the corner
for more of us, if Kuni' ichi Ozawa, director of the hi-tech Sincere
Korien retirement home in Korien, just outside Osaka, has his way. Four
years ago, Ozawa had a vision of using technology to cope with his
country's rapidly greying populace. A senior employee of the electronics
giant Matsushita, he was better placed than most to do something about it.
He
recalls: "We needed a concept that would differentiate our home from
others, so we developed the 'digital nursing home'. Since Matsushita
possesses the digital and IT technologies, as well as the know-how, we
felt we could provide a comprehensive care service." He
adds: "We expect nursing homes to become a lucrative business." Those
technologies have served the company well in building a reputation that
allows retirees and their families to trust Matsushita with the task of
caring for Japan's venerated "silver" population. The
company is already well-known for its operating theatre monitoring system,
wherein high-definition images of surgery are beamed to students with a
detail that should define "reality TV". The system also
pioneered the recording of surgical procedures to DVD. More
mundane, but equally important, monitoring goes on in Sincere Korien. This
includes the "nursing care support system", which monitors
residents throughout the complex, using a variety of bio-sensors checking
for changes in heat or mass, for example, when a patient prone to
nocturnal strolls leaves their room, as well as the more traditional
cameras. There
are also ceiling sensors in the private bathrooms tuned in to the length
of time a resident spends there, and linked to a help station, where an
assistant is permanently on call. Data is tracked with a view to spotting
worrisome trends. Fears
concerning over-protectiveness and patient privacy have not been
overlooked by the Matsushita Care Business Company, which runs Sincere
Korien. Ozawa explains: "Before moving in, residents and their
families are informed of all the special mechanisms and we ask permission
from the families for data storage." Central
to the Ozawa doctrine is adding value through technology. Japanese law
requires a patient-staff ratio of 3:1. He offers a 3:2 ratio, promising to
use technology not to cut staff, but to supplement their skills and to
better care for their charges. Even
the most conservative projections show that Japan's population will start
to shrink next year, possibly by as much as 1.3 million people. By 2025,
there are expected to be 10m fewer Japanese. A
steadily falling birth-rate will reduce the active and working population
by 6m, while better healthcare should see the 65-plus sector increase to
30% of the total population by the later date. Social security payments
are expected to increase sharply from the present 65 trillion yen (£0.3
trillion). The
need for cost-efficient residential homes is clear. Unlike in most western
countries, communal retirement facilities are the exception, rather than
the norm. Junsei
Watanabe, the head priest of Kousaiji-Temple in west Tokyo and an
authority on the ageing of society, agrees with the need for change:
"I live with my wife and her 78-year-old mother, but feel that the
care of the elderly should be socialised. The nuclear family is important,
but it is not sufficient." Watanabe
also hinted at the prosaic Japanese acceptance of the inevitable, perhaps
as a factor in their legendary longevity. "My temple forms part of
what I call the Triangle of Death. On one corner, there's us, on another,
the crematorium, while the third point is marked by the town's funeral
parlour." A
public nursing-care insurance system was recently introduced, which
provides subsidies to retirees opting for nursing home care. Sincere
Korien residents benefit from both that tax-funded subsidy and
Matsushita's good fortune to own the land on which the complex stands,
having converted it from a company dormitory in 2000. Move-in costs are
just over half those at typical retirement facilities, while monthly fees
are 250,000 yen, or £1,395 - £320 less than elsewhere. Ozawa's
flow turns again to the bigger picture: "Even if we are conservative
with our forecast in the number of households that need some kind of care,
we estimate that the care business is [worth] about 100 trillion yen. The
technology employed by Matsushita is discreet. It may be a test bed for
the company's care technologies, but the maximum of 107 senior citizens
(with a long waiting list) living within its walls are anything but guinea
pigs. Take
the teddy bear robot. Western eyes may consider the use of stuffed toys to
be a touch patronising, but Japan is the land of Hello Kitty and all
things kitsch. Of those who welcomed it in their rooms, we could not find
one resident - average age 82 - who had the slightest problem with the
idea of talking to a toy. The
celebrated cartoon mechanoid, Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu in his native
Japanese), is an oft-cited example of how the Japanese like their robots
cute. Robodex 2003, held in Tokyo, was an endless parade of innovative
robotics, but 99% of the consumer devices on show wouldn't look out of
place alongside Aibo, Sony's famous robot, in a child's playroom. The
main exceptions were the robots intended for more than mere entertainment
or companionship. These included machines that defuse minefields, droids
for the disabled and robots to aid care-givers. Most
notable in the latter category was the Power Assist Suit, from the
Kanagawa Institute of Technology. It is an 18kg, $20,000 exoskeleton to be
worn by carers lacking the strength to lift bedridden patients. The
institute expects to make it lighter and far cheaper before
commercialisation. Professor
Keijiro Yamamoto, the lead developer of the suit, explained: "We had
two motives in developing it: one was from an educational viewpoint, and
the other societal changes. As society ages, we are going to run short of
young carers. Our power suit reduces the physical burdens imposed in
caring for the elderly." He
sums up: "Our purpose is to solve social problems. In the future,
living with robots will be a reality in Japan." Sincere
Korien's robot bears aren't as spectacular as the Power Assist Suit, but
they also act as proxy pets. Their core function is to record patients'
response times during simple conversations powered by voice-recognition
software and to relay anything unusual to staff via the company Lan.
Although Teddy is networked via physical cables, the potential to take
things wireless is obvious. A
host of data on the residents is stored centrally, with some available via
the internet to specialists and concerned families. One
benefit of the Matsushita technology can be seen in routine physical
examinations, such as reading blood pressure. Typically, residents have
this done quickly in their rooms, with the data transmitted for analysis
elsewhere. Patients no longer have to "wait three hours in the
hospital for a three-minute consultation", says Ozawa. "I want
to use the technology to change from a 'move people' concept to a 'move
data' concept." As
we left Sincere Korien, needing reminding of the fact that its residents
are people, too, and not just part of an experiment on the cusp of a brave
new world of automated health care, one look at the notice boards in the
communal areas confirmed there is plenty of time to get away from the bits
and bytes that are the centre's nuts and bolts. The
timetable for September revealed a schedule loaded with activities as
diverse as music therapy, flower arrangement and traditional calligraphy
classes. Written large in the striking katakana script reserved for loan
words, and as if to prove this really is Osaka and not Metropolis, the
ubiquitous Japanese pastime of karaoke gets a regular look-in, too.
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
