Dealing with companies, customer service can take valuable time. Let your favorite AI bot come to the rescue.
You are here
Five New Technologies from What's Next Summit 2013
Sun, 03/17/2013 - 16:39 - Laurie Orlov
What's next in tech for older adults. At the Aging in America 2013 event in Chicago last week, attended by more than 2000 professionals who serve older adults, there were several tracks within the large event, including the Business Forum on Aging, National Alliance of Caregiving Coalitions and for new entrants targeting the boomer/senior market, there was a chance to hear speakers and meet other entrepreneurs at the 10th Annual What's Next Boomer Business Summit 2013. At the Summit, these startups were eager to meet with AARP executives, investors, and other players in the space (like GreatCall and Philips Home Healthcare). So here are five of the new products/services from those in attendance -- listed alphabetically; all of the material comes from their own websites:
-
CareMerge. "People over the age of 65 are the heaviest users of the health care system, but care coordination is difficult with limited senior facility staff having to communicate with sometimes up to seven outside stakeholders (physicians, specialists, therapists and family members, for example) for each resident, in order to make timely care decisions. Faxes and phone calls have been the best option to-date, but through the use of mobile apps (powered by Twilio), Caremerge is helping providers connect and exchange significant information faster." Learn more at CareMerge.
-
CareSquared. "CareSquared was founded by a group of individuals that shared the same concern that many do when faced with the need to place a loved one in a long-term care facility – how to ensure that our loved one’s quality of life remains good. We developed ElderVisit and EnVision to help bridge both the distance and information gap between nursing home patients and their loved ones to help ensure that quality of life." Learn more at CareSquared.
-
CareTreeMe. New care coordination platform. "CareTreeMe was a Finalist in the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge, 1 of 10 companies in North America selected to present at the AARP conference (over 20,000 attendees)/ Named Best New Company at the Chicago Health 2.0 Conference. Invited to participate in Tigerlabs Health, one of the top health IT startup accelerators in the world, operated in cooperation with Princeton University." Learn more at CareTreeMe.
-
Numera Libris. "Numera Libris gives today’s active seniors and their families freedom, security and the ability to manage their health at home or away. Numera Libris travels virtually anywhere delivering the functionality of a personal health device with a Mobile Emergency Response Service (MPERS). Through our telehealth+telecare platform, Libris allows an individual to upload biometric measurements from a variety of wireless health devices and instantly send that information securely to their health care team, including family, friends, and healthcare professionals." Learn more at Numera.
-
SingFit for Seniors. "SingFit Silver & Gold™ is a pioneering new program that brings the health- and wellness-enhancing power of fully immersive music-making to senior care. Available through Apple mobile devices, SingFit (US Patent No. 5,820,384) programming taps into the super powers of mega-hit songs, most people’s inherent love of singing and a growing body of research revealing that music-making is a terrific way to help promote cognitive and physical fitness at almost any age." Learn more at SingFit.
category tags:
Comments
Great use of technology
I love that one of the top five technologies you profiled is essentially a video game.
SingFit sounds like an awesome way to keep seniors involved, active and having fun at the same time.
Thanks for sharing.
5 technologies
These simple icon driven software products "plated" conveniently via mobile devices will give broader appeal to the facilities/caregivers but the process is far from new..software to put metrics together for patient care has been around for no less than 15 years for mostly hospital stakeholders. Creating an electronic check that can be moved fast and efficiently to family and other stakeholders or to temporary storage with heads-up items like medications taken or not, bowels moved, etc. all great but, let to check the specific box, whether you do it on a tablet or with a pencil and paper, isn't changing required human engagement to gather for now.
As for the product line are based on family visual engagement, do they think the adult "children" paying for their parents in facilities or care wouldn't immediate ask why not use SKYPE for free or any of the other Facetime apps available, that are also free? Lastly, huge void...where are the wearable devices, or did I miss that from the Convention or Boomer Summit? Hands down, the biggest leap and one that will transform all and for all generations will be metric-gathering wearables. Health and wellness metrics is after all why we are even investing in all this stuff, right? FDA trials for these devices are happening now and already there are devices on the market channeled through fitness sales ready to reach billions of dollars in sales. My Fitbit is my new great daily incentive (it is easy to lie to yourself that you are active), and of course it is storing metrics that might help solve a personal medical event down the road for me. So geez if and when we need assistance, trust me, we will use the most forward technology there is..so please developers, use your best forward vision.
SingFit
LOVE the concept behind SingFit. Music is such a powerful tool.
Add FamilyLink to Boomer Summit companies
In addition at the Summit, FamilyLink, a "startup consumer product being offered by iKare Corporation. FamilyLink has been in use in homes for about a year and a half and was made known to the public late last year. a simple to use, a moderately priced communication device, with unobtrusive monitoring of the senior partner to the care partner through motion detection. It has one-touch touchscreen technology invented by Stanford PhD satellite technology scientists to monitor their aging parents. Additionally, it has news, weather, sports, games and other functions at the touch of a button. At only $699 ($599 with a Coupon Code from the founder) for the device and $19.95 per month to monitor, without a contract, it is affordable, and easy to use. Laura Galuzzy found FamilyLink while doing research for Dr. Anabel Pelham who got the Aging-Friendly City designations for the cities of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills from the World health Organization. Her SFSU Falls Prevention research team helped get the designations and gave guidelines to the cities' senior commission.The FamilyLink activity or non-activity alerts sent to the care partner can be beneficial for falls management." Learn more at FamilyLink.