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High Tech Elder Care May Be Mixed Blessing
Hugh Pickens writes "Gerontologists say 'aging in place' vastly improves the quality of life for seniors, and is a lot cheaper for society than group homes and institutions. The trick is to do so without jeopardizing the health and safety of older people, which is why 480 people are taking part in pilot programs in Portland, Oregon that outfit homes with technology so elderly people can be monitored for illness or infirmity. With the first wave of baby boomers turning 65 this year, corporations such as Intel see lucrative new business opportunities tending to a generation of people accustomed to doing things their own way. As part of a test, Dorothy Rutherford's two-bedroom condominium has been outfitted with an array of electronic monitoring gear that might eventually find its way to retail shelves. Motion sensors along hallways and ceilings record her gait and walking speed. A monitor on her back door observes when she leaves the house, and another one on the refrigerator keeps tabs on how often she's eating. A special bed laced with sensors can assess breathing patterns, heart rate and general sleep quality, a pill box fitted with electronic switches records when medication is taken, and a Wii video game system has been rejiggered so that players stand on a platform that measures their weight and balance. But there is the downside, as some experts on the aging population worry that making it easier for elderly people to stay in their homes could reduce the incentive for children to visit or could create a false sense that technology can foresee every problem and address every need."
The average life expectancy of someone in a nursing home is 2 - 3 years. This could be a huge leap forward in increasing the quality of life for the elderly, and I look forward to the tech that will be in place when I'm that old.
...could reduce the incentive for children to visit or could create a false sense that technology can foresee every problem and address every need.
Seriously?
The first one makes no sense and the second is, you know, obvious.
Maybe those "experts" should retire, they may be getting as old as the people they are studying.
Technology might make people lazy. What else is new?
We'll cope, so long as we do something about the lawsuits. I'm wondering if the liability factor might make this technology just as expensive as a group home.
Death row for old folks !! Come on, you know it is !! Put your remaining parent in one of those, and they never come out, except in a body bag !! Be glad you weren't given the same treatment at after birth !!
or could create a false sense that technology can foresee every problem and address every need."
This makes about as much sense as the assertion that seatbelts are dangerous because they encourage people to drive recklessly.
GE and Intel are lining up for a big suck on the elder care teat. It's nice that some monitor in some remote location will beep when they have a problem - but by the time they get the message, and get a medical team on site (from Wyoming?) it's going to be a bit on the "too late" side. Letting the old folks live out their lives and die at home is a good thing; they'll enjoy a better quality of life and they won't be stuck with crippling medical bills. But I'm having a little trouble figuring out how a few dozen kilobucks worth of GE and Intel stuff is going to do anything to improve their lives. The only winners here are the corporations - with luck, they can get federal healthcare funds to pay for all of it (at properly inflated prices).
My mother has been diabetic for thirty plus years. Currently she uses a pump which has a sensor system which can partially measure her glucose level. It is not terribly accurate and has to be calibrated a lot. She is still required to test her blood sugar levels a few times a day as she is NOT allowed to rely on the sensor readings for accuracy. If she gets very low at night it beeps then eventually vibrates. So it can at least determine relative levels of glucose and report the direction its going but they are not convenient. The sensor has to be changed every three days (they are not cheap) and there is a decent failure rate.
So what am I getting at. I like the direction this is going and I do not believe it will make a nation of shut ins or have families feel as if they can ignore their elders. If they are going to ignore their elders (parents) then they will regardless of what technology does. If anything this might help keep them in contact more often because like the article states you can be told if mom took her medicine, if she is eating regularly. I would not mind a monitoring system which could alert on emergencies because that is the real point of all this monitoring - we cannot be there 24x7 but machines can.
I would certainly be willing to pay for monitoring of my parents health so that emergency persons can be sent when the need arises. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is not something you can recover from unless you catch it quickly. My mother can stay conscious with blood sugar levels in the 40s but when it gets below 60 she acts "silly drunk" and may not realize the trouble she is in. At the same time 500+ in her can be fine but it should be noted because in diabetes one common thing I have found is far too many doctors don't agree on causes or when something is a problem, let alone how to always fix it.
More monitoring options will add more years of good living. Now this opens up the next problem, paying for all these years. For some of us giving up the little things won't be hard for the big things in life.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The problem isn't that workers don't know the patients are sick. That's why a person is in a nursing home in the first place, because they have something wrong with them that makes it impossible to care for themselves. The problem is that workers in some of these places get complacent, and let the elderly lie in one spot for days at a time until they get bed sores, or let them lay in their own excrement, or make them suffer in other ways just because it's too inconvenient to fulfill their needs. Unfortunately neither this technology nor any other is going to fix that.
I have had 3 grandparents live into their mid 90s. Living with others is what helped them. All this technology crap is HORRIBLE. Children need to take care of their parents and give back. This is the worst application of technology, ever.
I'm not so sure. A single senior living in a single family home strikes me as much more expensive than that same single senior living in an apartment or condominium which is smaller, requires less maintenance inside and outside the building, benefits from economies of scale, helps provide a more social scene for those seniors, often provides more services which don't require driving, etc.
Know what's even cheaper? Moving back in with a child. Multigenerational homes can often allow for even more efficient living, and more attentive care for the senior. It's true that many communities in tUSA don't allow a single family home's basement (or other area) to be converted into a full apartment, but that's a different problem we as a society should think about tackling.
Individuals living in single family homes is extremely expensive for society and for the individual. The summary's implication that the two choices are to live in the house you raised your family in or to move to a nursing home as the only two options is an incomplete listing of choice.
If your children are only visiting you because they're afraid you might be dead, you need better children.
On the flip side, if they're only visiting because they're hoping you're dead, you should have been a better parent.
We have prolonged life but not the quality of life, and this tech does not address this. A dying process that used to take 2 months is now drawn out for 2 years costing untold piles of money and untold extra grief and pain for the patient and the family.
Does anyone else feel this tech is super creepy and sounds more like a testing ground for Orwellian type monitoring? I mean there is no reason a government couldn't say this tech that watch's everything you eat and every time you leave the house and all your movement in your own house ever your gait wouldn't give a 29 year old extra safety too?? creepy
even if it's true this is cheaper then a retirement home today; whatever it costs, it will cost less putting this tech into a retirement home on scale (also reusable without being moved) so that argument is false
The Boomers are quite an interesting bunch. On one hand, their births help result in the significant post-war boom during the 1950s and 1960s, but since that time they've been responsible for much of the economic destruction we've seen over the past few decades.
By the mid-to-late 1970s, the earliest Boomers started to get into power in businesses and government. Instead of promoting sensible business and economic policies, they focused on short-sighted short-term "goals" that have been absolutely disastrous. Most of the 1980s were spent promoting "free trade" with third-world nations. This was solidly in place by the early 1990s. These agreements rapidly destroyed virtually all North American manufacturing during the rest of the 1990s and the early 2000s. We've spent the last 10 years or so witnessing the utter destruction of what were once the world's most powerful and effective economies.
Those of us born before or after them should not feel responsible for them in any way. We should not support them financially. They collectively ruined the economic prospects of many future generations. In retirement, they should share in the miserable future they're created for at least their children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren.
This technology isn't particularly new -- telehealth has been around in some forms for a few decades, but it's definitely taking off now.
One of the benefits not mentioned is that, in addition to 'remote monitoring,' telehealth services generate a huge amount of useful data for clinicians. Our telehealth program collects weight, blood pressure, pulse, and (for diabetic patients) blood sugar readings daily. It takes less than five minutes for the patient to do these tests.
In turn, their physician and care team have daily medical data, and can detect subtle changes much more quickly than a weekly nurse visit or occasional office visits. The only other setting where you have daily vitals monitoring is an in-patient hospital or care facility; now we can have it in people's houses. And the patients generally love it -- they feel a sense of security knowing that their health is being monitored.
High tech care may be a mixed blessing, but what we do know for certain is that human care will get worse. The ratio of working population to retirees will change a lot over the next 30 years, Already nurses and home aid are on the stop watch, you can't make it that much more effective to matter. Meanwhile a lot of the industry has gone from making a thousand to a million units with robots, automation and computers. A gadget will be getting cheaper and cheaper while human time gets more and more expensive. Politicians can lie as much as they like but looking at the fundamentals you see that it is inevitable.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Can they program these robots to steal the old persons valuables too?
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
... is exoskeletons: http://berkeleybionics.com/exoskeletons/
Upon seeing the headline, my first thought was of Roujin Z.
I guess that's for when they can't get by on their own and simple monitoring won't do.
End of line..
Have gnu, will travel.
We could try to actually understand what causes aging and maybe reverse it? But that seems like it's way too complex and over the head of our so-called advanced technological society. We can't do space because it's too big, and we can't do life because it's too small. All we're good at is planes, trains, automobiles and computers. Jesus H Christ where IS all this technology I keep hearing about? An app on my iPhone? A fucking picture on a screen? That's it?
Why are we keeping these douche bag baby boomer idiots alive any longer? Their "doing it their way" BS is the reason this country is in shambles! Fuck old people.
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This is a good idea for people that are close to having to go to a nursing home. The monitoring system will show when they can't take care of themselves any more. This could be months or even years. A good nursing home costs an arm and a leg and your first born child, while staying home is much cheaper, and a small victory every day. What ever they are going to charge for monitoring is still less than a good nursing home.
" But there is the downside, as some experts on the aging population worry that making it easier for elderly people to stay in their homes could reduce the incentive for children to visit or could create a false sense that technology can foresee every problem and address every need.""
Since when is caring for your elderly parents an incentive to see them?
Also, there is already a false sense among the population that nursing homes can foresee every problem and address every need... at least with technology we're getting much closer to making that a reality than the current situation ever could approach
Part of the reason we started MEDgle ( http://www.medgle.com/ ) was to help make sense of all the data that is (EHRs) and will be (sensors) generated. The huge amount of data generated needs to be analyzed and prioritized before being presented to caregivers. At MEDgle, our focus is to enable scalable health by facilitating the distribution of care tasks to the most cost effective individual while ensuring quality of care through real-time clinical intelligence. Though as the article points out there is a risk of over dependance. The question, is how to achieve balance that provides the best outcomes. Feedback, thoughts, etc are very welcome! Cheers Ash disclaimer (I'm the CEO of the company)
Just let them pass... so much resources wasted on things that we're about to throw away anyhow. I'm about to turn 30 but make no mistake I know when my useful time is up. I should be able to take care of myself without burdening society or my children
I've fallen and I can't get up!
... and could be solved by a high-tech, or even a bunch of low-tech, devices. But electronic monitoring can only go so far.
If the elderly person cannot interpret what they are told by a screen (or a disembodied voice reading it), a human caregiver must be present. In a timely manner. _Every time_. A familiar son or daughter over the phone is not enough for someone with a form of dementia, or a case of Just Plain Stubborn. There is no substitute for being there.
As many commenters pointed out, eldercare will be monumental challenge for the next couple decades. Nursing homes, assisted living, and group homes will clearly evolve, as there will be more folks who need care, and fewer who can provide it.
Lose = not win
As a nurse who has dealt with these issues a LOT, a few points to make.
*Electronics will never replace human beings, they supplement them. Monitors can tell you some things, but nothing replaces someone who knows an elder looking and talking and ensuring that they "look ok". Current technology is not nearly accurate enough to ensure anyone's health, machines are too picky and have to be placed "just right", broken phone line bolluxes all your telehealth technology, batteries fail, and elders get tired of the annoying electronics and unplug stuff.
*Neither electronic monitoring, home health nurses, nursing homes, nor family in the home is going to prevent an elder from falling. Moving them from home alone to a facility simply ensures that someone who is falling frequently will be found sooner, there is no magic about a nursing home that prevents falls. On a related note BEDRAILS ARE EVIL - elders break arms and legs by getting them stuck through the rails and then falling from bed. They climb over the rails and land on their heads rather than sliding from bed onto the floor as they would do otherwise. They even get their restraints partially untied and hang themselves by climbing bedrails and falling. Bedrails are never an answer to keep a loved one from falling, half rails are used to help them move themselves in the bed.
*SAVE MONEY NOW - there is no magical fund out there that is going to take care of you when you are too old to take care of yourself. If you are sick enough to need nursing care, medicare will pay for a limited amount of time in a skilled nursing bed, if you are dying they will pay for hospice. If you have spent all your money and are completely broke, medicaid in some states will put you up in a medicaid funded facility or private home. Most of these are not where you would want to spend your final days, trust me.
*If you are needing to choose a facility to care for a family member who cannot care for themselves, use the "sniff test". Visit the facility unannounced on a weekend (avoid mealtimes if you can) and walk down the hall using your nose. If it smells like people are unwashed and unchanged, choose a different place. And another good rule is that if you have a family member in a home, those that have frequent (and unpredictable) family visits get the best care. When I visited patients in facilities they never knew when the nurse was going to show up and so my patients were getting much more frequent checks and care than those who did not have visitors. And when you are there be sure to check the BM log. Sounds gross but is vitally important. Constipation and bowel impaction is a huge problem in elders who cannot easily make their needs known or care for themselves, somebody needs to be paying attention.
*And remember each time that Congress starts making noises about cutting programs for healthcare that this is going to directly affect YOU when your elderly parent needs care. You are responsible as next of kin, and failure to care for a dependent elder is a criminal offense. This also affects the care you will be able to receive when the time comes and you need help. Nobody plans on needing care when they get older, but most everyone does. The choices you make now have a direct affect on how that will look.
The problem will be what we had to decide about my dad when he started getting up in the middle of the night and walking to wherever his senile dementia, poisoned by aluminum dust brain thought he was going. Literally, we had to lock him up for his own safety.
Cranky educator.
This is progress, progress that will be helping people as well. There's everything right about evolving from "I've fallen and I can't get up" to the best of technology to help our loved ones. Independence is no minor desire, and lack of it is no minor disaster, from an emotional and financial perspective. Technology should be the first line of defense to help the elderly stay at home longer, safer and more comfortably.
And apart from the positive benefit technology will be providing the elderly and their family caregivers, it will help our country if it allows the medical cost of care to be reduced by even a small amount -- which it will. But solutions can't be "medical", expensive, patronizing, big brotherish ... to the contrary, the solutions that will work the best and deployed the most will the ones who are fully integrated, have as much a social connectivity component as they do a health and safety one. Easy to use, fun and engaging ... extending our broken sickcare system via big corporate and expensive medical devices is not the answer. The real answer is via consumer-centric solutions.
"I've fallen and I can't get up" ... but integration across multiple solutions, and brought forward into the 21st century!
Kian Saneii.
When I get to that ripe age, I plan to stay up with my Old Glory Robot insurance... so that I can be well protected when the metal ones come for me...
I don't think we need THAT much tech in grandmas house... Simply because it wouldn't work. On the other hand, something like an iPhone has more than enough capability to monitor health and emergency status with built in sensors and a few attachments. I liked the idea of using a Wii in that manner too.
My grandmother lived to 90's. The BIG factor was being in her home and access to prompt help. "minor" injuries are what "kill" most old people. A broken bone or untreated sore turns into multiple surgeries and "being in a hospital" is what gets them in a slow death spiral. Throw in monitoring meds and chronic conditions like pacemakers or diabeties and you could cut 50% of care costs. Ultimately, being SOCIAL is what keeps most old people going. Having someplace to GO every few days, people to see keeps them getting up and taking care of themselves.
Smart money would be on bluetooth connected devices ... Monitors, O2 tanks, testing meters... And tie those to something cheap like a Wii or iPhone(ish) devices. Brand small things to work together and you have a winner. Heck, iPhones have 2-way video features now... Now grandma can SHOW where she's fallen and can't get up. It would be trivial to build an "old people friendly" device with some goofy robot OS but all the same hardware.