9 JULY - SEPTEMBER 2023ELDERCARE REVIEWIn the future a multitude of "smart home" devices, such as wireless locator tags and monitors, thermostats, light bulbs, and camera-enabled doorbells - will all participate in monitoring and alerting. Orchestrated through common home hub platforms, in conjunction with special software services, the aggregate solutions will be enabled to cater to the senior residents.As the home space IoT sector continues to evolve, we can expect to see fully connected homes that make "aging in place" a much more satisfying experience.The Future Will Revolve Around Mainstream Hardware PlatformsHighly specialized niche hardware will become obsolete. For example, the Apple Watch Series4 and 5 can already take ECGs, detect falls, and send an emergency alert to a medical response team.Startups will be keen to simplify their products as much as possible and integrate into a larger care ecosystem of software and service as opposed to building out their own custom platforms and expecting their consumers to adopt it.AgeTech Will Try Hard to Not Look its AgeThe AgeTech demographic might be reluctant to view their age as more than just a number. In line with their desire for autonomy and a more active lifestyle, many of these customers would require an `easy' and intuitive access to the world's best technologies, making no excuses forage. The focus will be on "senior-aware" products instead of "senior-directed" products.Wearables of the World, Converge!Just like it was in the early days of the smart home solutions for senior, the early "wearable" solutions for seniors tend to be single purpose­ be it fall detection, personal emergency systems or vitals monitoring.The wearable real estate is limited, and it is clear now that the early days of then ascent" one-trickpony" wearables are over.Companies must be able to fit the most important senior functionality such as fall detection, communication, location tracking, and vital monitoring in one package.Wearables and Smart Homes to IntegrateThe care ecosystem and health data should follow senior citizens where they go. The wearable and smart home ecosystem verticals have been evolving on two parallel tracks. The pending acquisition of FitBit by Google maybe the first major step towards integration between the two.Additionally, machine learning can work wonders with the sheer amount of data available from both wearables and home ecosystems.Retire into Gig EconomyAs seniors retire, they look for opportunities to maintain an active lifestyle ­ through part-time and seasonal jobs, volunteering or remote work. The extra cash can come in handy as well, as an average US citizen (what age?) has $200-300k in his/her account and 54 percent have less than50k.The gig economy offers seniors an opportunity to do just that, allowing them to gradually decrease workload and broadening employment options available to them.In 2017, it was reported that seniors are earning upto 30 percent of their income from being involved within the gig economy. We expect this trend to accelerate as governments increase pension age to catch up with life expectancy, and state-funded pensions face an impending solvency crisis. Shh, Big Brothers are ListeningWith the likes of Amazon and Google taking over the world of digital health, many seniors face the growing concerns about the risks of privacy invasion, which are inherent in the advanced monitoring solutions which could be employed for their own protection.Indeed, earlier in 2019 we saw Apple, which does not heavily rely on personalized advertising unlike Facebook, Google and Amazon, began addressing this sentiment with its advertising slogan "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone".Thus, age-tech solutions need to be able to offer their customers a full guarantee of privacy. When these solutions can detect falls without constant video recording, and understand voice commands without the accompanying suspicions of the private conversations being constantly recorded for advertising purposes, they will likely be able to find a loyal privacy-centric customer base. With the increased share of seniors in the overall population, there is also an increased incidence of various chronic conditions, which creates an ever-increasing demand for care
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