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Sensor-based remote monitoring of older adults – a good idea in 2009.  That year, GE acquired the sensor-based monitoring technology, QuietCare from Living Independently Group (LIG). Sensors could be placed around the home and alerts transmitted about the older adult – across multiple rooms, motion, and lack of motion could all be detected without a wearable. At that time, the ‘home health monitoring’ market was projected to grow to $7.7 billion by 2012. That did not happen, but fast forward to 2023 – market sizing indicates a sizable ‘remote health monitoring’ space. In the 15 years since the QuietCare acquisition, much has happened – although many players left the space when it was unclear how to make money in it.

Surveys were released recently that trigger some debate.  Consider whether the low adoption of health-related tech is due to flaws with the tech or with the survey questions?  AARP’s responders only had notable interest in fitness apps, though 63% of responders had chronic conditions that could usefully be monitored or mitigated by apps if the survey took a deeper dive. Do we really know from this non-specific survey whether older adults are trying them out? Up next was the Best Buy survey of consumer health tech – and again some irony in the responses.  Sixty-seven percent of the 65+ responders said that staying in their homes is a top priority. Yet when asked about the utility of monitoring technology for use in later life, the 65+ segment was the least interested among age cohorts, a clear “What me, worry?”  Here are the blog posts from August 2024:

Older adults today are beneficiaries of widespread tech access. And it really does fulfill the 2011 prediction in the AARP report, Connected Living for Social Aging.  Broad access to online capabilities was imagined by experts when that report was written.  They knew that someday high speed Internet access, widespread use of social networks, online access to food delivery, health appointments, shopping, holding video gatherings with families at holidays – all taken for granted now, but then it was just a dream. The good news is that most older adults take advantage of these and many capabilities today. Internet access today is being delivered out to remote rural areas – and most of the 65+ will soon be connected. Then what is the next quality of life frontier for older adults?  

The Harvard study describes a bleak care future. And the NORC study underscores the housing problem for the Forgotten Middle. Life expectancy for the 65+ is another 20 years on average.  But only 14% of Americans can afford long-term care in the home. And if they could afford it, only 4% of their homes are aging-ready. Nor are they telehealth-ready – where 36% of Americans do not have high-speed internet in the home. For low-income individuals, home and community based services may have a 3-year wait to obtain them. Further, 42% of women aged 75+ live alone.