Technology Today

Today, on Your Caregiving Journey, Chris Otto and Chirag Patel from Halo Monitoring joined us live from American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s annual conference. Chris and Chirag’s product (myHalo) is part of the Idea House, which is on display at the conference. The house features the best in universal design and technologies for older adults and family caregivers.

Chirag lives in Chicago, so I met him for dinner about a month ago. I was able to see the technology used in his product—a personal emergency response system that detects falls. The product is light-weight, unassuming and easy-to-wear. What’s most exciting to me is young people developing technology to create better quality-of-life for older adults and their family caregivers. It’s exciting because they provide cross-over into industries (such as consumer electronics) that brings awareness and information to individuals (i.e., family caregivers) who need the products but may be unaware of the availability. (You’ll hear my excitement on the show; you can listen via the player at the end of the post.)

More than 90 percent of the products on display at the AAHSA Idea House are on the market today. Product highlights include:

• A medication dispenser that automatically organizes, reminds, dispenses and monitors an individual’s medication use. The technology enables pharmacies to be notified when refills are needed.
• Electronic distribution of medical records to doctors, family members and caregivers on an ongoing basis. The distribution enables timely responses to the data, thereby improving an individual’s health outcomes and reducing health care costs over time.
• Automatic personal emergency response systems, including fall detection that monitor a person’s events and notify emergency medical services and caregivers immediately when needed.
• A security system that replaces the traditional peephole with an LCD screen to make it easier for people in wheelchairs or other needs to see who’s at their door.
• Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL), a wearable robotic suit that is designed to multiply a person’s strength by reading bio-electric signals a person generates. The suit uses those signals to guide the movement of robotic limbs strapped to a person’s arms and legs. With HAL’s help, many stroke patients may be able to walk and nurses have extra strength to move individuals who need assistance.
• Height-adjustable kitchen and bath appliances designed to meet different users’ needs.
• A Passive Sleep Monitoring System that monitors a person’s sleep quality, breathing and heart rate as he/she lays on the mattress and enables caregivers to detect sleep-related markers of disease, like urinary tract infections and depression, earlier.

Because technology will become more and more important in your caregiving role, the following resources can help you stay up-to-date:

The Daily Wrinkle: Jill Gilbert of Gilbert Guide gives us a video reviews of aging products and innovators.

Aging in Place Technology Watch: Laurie M. Orlov blogs about and analyzes technology trends.

Microsoft Health Tech Today: Bill Crounse hosts this monthly video covering developments in health care technology.

And, Chicago’s PBS station featured a segment on the Idea House; take a tour: