The senior living industry is on the brink of a technological revolution, says Kanishka Acharya
In 2021, technology and adaptation have become intrinsic to having a higher quality of life. Senior citizens can now upload prescriptions, speak to doctors, and stay in touch with family and friends at the touch of a button. However, these small adaptations are only beginning to scratch the surface of what technology can do for senior living.
This may sound dramatic, but it’s not an overstatement — senior citizens as a whole community have been among the slowest to adopt new technology, and unlike other branches of the industry, senior living or eldercare as it is referred to in India has not historically been pushed by its customer base to adopt a better tech, largely due to the small user base and a largely fragmented service offered by players, most of them with simple band-aid solutions to existing pain points. That’s a problem. Senior-care providers can only deliver on wellness to the extent that they’re able to get a complete view of their clients to make decisions based on the whole person.
But the tides are turning. As tech companies recognise the huge potential to transform the $740 billion senior-care market and tech-savvy boomers enter retirement in growing numbers, the stage is set for a total industry revamp.
The big hurdle most technologies that can make a difference to senior living face now is unifying their many siloed systems. While we are capturing data from multiple devices, these technologies aren’t talking to each other - EHRs, for example, that don’t take to a calendar system or medical records systems. More importantly where is all this data going? The need for a robust data analytics platform that is training an AI /ML engine to create patterns and detect anomalies is critical.
IOT will play a big role in creating meaningful solutions to later life living — devices that can detect sleep patterns, resting and variable heart rates through embedded chips in mattresses to co-relate it with day-time data, that is being non-intrusively being captured, can help clinicians and care companies make better decisions and improve overall health. Devices that help with navigation for those affected with diabetes related partial or complete blindness, equipped with embedded triple layer chip designs with gyros and sensors, can change the quality of life dramatically.
Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a 20 per cent increase in falls for seniors living in unsupervised conditions. With social distancing guidelines in effect and a limit on visitors, seniors are spending more time alone and unsupervised in their homes. This is especially problematic for seniors with neuro degenerative conditions, who were already falling twice as often as seniors without dementia.
As we look ahead to 2022, fall prevention will continue to be a top concern in senior living. More often than not, this is a sentinel event that changes the course of life. To help solve this challenge, an AI-enabled sensor and beacon system to detect falls of individuals with dementia is set up. It will result in up to 40 per cent fewer falls and up to a 80 per cent reduction in fall-related ER visits.
What is often lost in the in this maze of technology innovation is the need to develop and implement tech that makes an actual difference in daily living, whether it’s improving the quality in performing activities of daily living (ADL’s) or restoring the dignity to seniors in the entire caregiver-care receiver interaction. This is something that not much attention has been given to so far. A big issue with the pre-baby boomer generation is the reluctance or inability to tech adoption. Trying to force adoption through wearable health devices, trackers, and so on, seldom achieve the desired outcomes. Technology will have to be seamlessly woven into their lives to make a credible difference; another important case can be seen in the instance of adult incontinence. This affects nearly 51 per cent of seniors aged 65 and older, and the only existing solution has been invasive surgeries or adult diapers to navigate daily living. If we could create a sensor-based patch that can record and communicate, in advance, that an individual’s bladder or bowels are full, it would restore agency to both the individual and their caregiver.
Hence, it is vital to develop non-intrusive tech that can dramatically improve the quality of life and restore dignity in later life living, monitor client health, and deliver better care.
(The author is the founder and CEO of Welldercare, lifestyle as service retirement model for senior living.)