Old Age in the Technology Age New devices to monitor health and well-being at home a growing new sector From: Abilities Buzz - 09/2005 Talking pill bottles that remind you to take your medicine. A wristwatch that can help find a wandering Alzheimer's patient. Smart Band-Aids that check your temperature and heartbeat. Sensors in bedsheets that monitor sleep apnea and snoring. Motion detectors on doors and furniture that sense when you're up and about, when you stay in bed, and whether you've fallen. Robots that help disabled people get up from a chair and walk down the hall. These are technologies that exist today reports the San Francisco Chronicle on August 8th. With the United States' population rapidly aging, electronic devices to monitor seniors' health and well-being at home are a growing new sector. A few are on the market now; more may hit the U.S. market as soon as next year. "We have the potential to aim our innovation engine at the age wave challenge and change the way we do health care from a crisis-driven, assembly-line, hospital approach to a personal-driven approach, with people taking care of themselves with help from family, friends and technologies," said Eric Dishman, director of health research and innovation for Intel. The computer-chip giant takes the area so seriously that when it reorganized in January, it created a digital health group as one of its five primary business units reporting directly to the chief executive officer. "Intel went down this path after a study of 300 households in the United States, South America and Europe where we sent social scientists out to live with and observe them," Dishman said. "We ostensibly focused on digital entertainment, but the overwhelming response by anyone over 40 was, 'I don't need 500 more TV channels; I need a way to manage my diabetes, and more importantly to manage the diabetes of my aging parents.' We heard that so many times, we said: 'We need to start a lab to focus on personal health trends.'" Now, Dishman leads that lab in Portland, OR. "We study the needs of seniors and Boomers to figure out how all the gear we're putting into people's lives for digital entertainment can be used for health and wellness," he said. Although Intel will stick to its mission of building the chips that power products rather than getting into product development itself, the lab has created a number of proof-of-concept devices. For example, there's a "Caller ID on steroids" for people with memory loss who have become "afraid to answer the phone because they wouldn't know the difference between their own daughter and a stranger calling them," Dishman said. When the phone rings, a screen shows a photograph of the person calling, their name and relationship, and a short summary of a previous conversation. Like the amped-up Caller ID, many senior tech products are built upon existing devices. That makes them easier for consumers to use, because they are simply extensions of familiar gadgets. Cell phones, for example, are the basis for a host of ideas for future products, as well as some available now in Europe and Japan. There is a cell phone that detects voice tremors, indicating a risk of Parkinson's disease. There is one that reminds patients to take their medications at programmed intervals - and even comes with a built-in pill dispenser. Another has navigational features to help people with memory problems find their way around town; others help monitor conditions like diabetes. The biggest issue for these new developments is a cost issue; who pays for "gerontechnology" products. As Forrester's Boehm noted in a report, Americans expect someone else - an insurer or Medicare - to pick up the tab for preventive care like immunizations and routine exams - and rarely make impulse health care purchases. On the other hand, she says, consumers have shown they're willing to pay for treatments like acupuncture and chiropractic even when they're not covered by insurance - once they're convinced those solutions work. Medicare is now funding several pilot projects to experiment with new approaches to care, such as Health Buddy, a "telemedicine" device that asks patients with chronic conditions like diabetes about their health and transmits the data to a health care provider. Boehm predicts that telemedicine solutions to manage chronic diseases and post-hospitalization issues will prove so cost-effective that insurers and Medicare will start to cover them within the next few years - partially under pressure from advocacy groups like AARP. Once that happens, she wrote, "It will take only two to three years from the onset of coverage for cost-conscious consumers and aggressive providers to pounce on newly subsidized services - and purchase the devices that enable them." That should expand the market quickly. Links: Eric Dishman http://www.intel.com/technology/techresearch/people/bios/dishman_e.htm Health Buddy http://www.healthhero.com/