Meeting the preferences of aging family, but harming caregiver's own prospects.
Montgomery County Commission on Aging, September, 2024
The population is aging – and still, the tech solution market is immature. Investors of all types demonstrate interest in a product here and an offering there. Competitions highlight product winners; money is raised for one product at a time. One reason for the immaturity of the market is the behavior of buyers. Senior living companies buy a product for this and an offering for that. The future is predicted to incorporate new technology like AI – but that is always ‘in the future.’ Everyone agrees that AI could enhance retirement living and healthcare, but deployment of new offerings is always described as in the future. No other software categories in tech history – consider office, finance, supply chain – remain a laundry list of point products when markets expect suites.
It's past time for the AgeTech market to catch up to population change. One sentence about the numbers should suffice. Today there are 24 million people aged 75 or older. Only 1.5 million live in nursing homes and only 800,000 live in assisted living. The majority of the 75+ live at home, supposedly ‘aging in place’, with nearly half of the women living alone. They are served by a patchwork of regional services, agencies, home care franchises, and home health workers and if available, family caregivers. There is a struggle to hire and keep people across all worker categories and locations. A patchwork of companies is unlikely to think holistically about all the services and tech products that could help their constituents when their conditions and status changes. And per their own websites, intentions are good, but they can’t keep up with the changes in the market, such as when product companies are acquired and disappear.
The investors and large providers can move the needle on marketplace maturity. Today’s AgeTech approaches to fostering innovation for older adults are admirable. They are found in startup directories, conference exhibit halls, and events run by NIC and LeadingAge. Startups and current market entrants will be in the exhibit halls and be featured in articles. But these reinforce a market approach that values starting companies but does not demonstrate ways to evolve them to become part of solutions. While encouraging startups is laudable, evolving them into grouped solutions or suites representing multiple categories of need would really move the needle on care delivery across all settings.
It's time for a suite mindset for investors and large providers. Instead of a product here and a clever offering there, seek combinations of well-tested offerings that span a range of older adult circumstances, health status and quality of life issues. While it may not be time yet for deep technology-based integration, investors and providers should encourage marketing of combinations of offerings to address, for example, mobility, health management, and home safety (see example-only suites in Figure 1). Or caregiving and dementia care. Once the investors and providers envision B2B suites of solutions, they may find that products are largely in the market already and need investment to grow. Then the intermediaries and smaller providers will want to envision and eventually market their use of suites when planning for the future.
Manage health and chronic conditions suite | Symptom verification | Remote Monitoring | Medication management | Hearing loss | Managing regulatory change |
Maintain mobility suite | Exercise tools | Devices | Well-maintained product directory | Up-to-date transportation tools | Tech for peer support |
Provide home and safety suite | Home security systems | Smart doorbells | Temperature and air quality monitors | In-home fall detection | Wearables |
Figure 1 Examples of AgeTech suites
Comments
Fragmented market
Laurie,
You say “No other software categories in tech history remain a laundry list of point products when markets expect suites”. Technology cannot lead a fragmented industry and make it a streamlined one. Technology is following the service industry, not leading it. Seniors Housing’s broader sectors encompass both Retirement Housing and Integrated Retirement Communities with customers/patients who are as diverse in needs and wants as the numbers of people residing there.
Just look at a mature hospitality industry, you can find suites for any category or class of hotel; this is because the industry created these categories and classes. The senior housing market is all over the map, most operators nor the clients can figure out who, what they offer or to what extent they can service their clients/customers. The age spread from 55 to 100+ is so large, served by 50 to 75 different products/categories and programs, until this industry becomes segmented in class, style, and service/care provisions, it does not make sense for the tech world to create all-encompassing suites.
Every new generation of seniors will be aging differently and technology will always be following the trends created by each generation. Historically some tech companies have based technology on the over-65 population but the average age of move-ins into senior housing is the late 70s, chancing towards mid 80’s; the senior housing market is too young and full of jargon busters, and no suit can keep up with this cultural evolution yet.