Like many in the Sandwich Generation, lately I’ve been spending an unfortunate amount of time thinking about the hazards of growing old–especially when you are poor–today. When you go to the hospital you get great care (expensive, I’m sure), but your out-of-hospital care is crappy. After a couple of weeks out of the hospital, back you go. You want independence, but you really need constant monitoring. Your family is both worried all the time and exhausted into apathy.
I’ve also been spending time thinking about how the emerging Internet of Things might help with this, so I was very pleased to see UX Magazine‘s recent article: What Will It Take To Make Your Grandma’s Wearable? Wearables seem like a great solution to help the elderly and infirm stay independent. Some of the cool features they could have include:
Requiring Little or No Input From Patient
- Blood sugar monitoring (1 in 10 adults has Type 2 diabetes)
- “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” notifications
- Medication reminders (and visual cues to make sure the appropriate medication is taken)
- Heart rate monitoring
Requiring Some Input from Patient
- Food and activity logs
- Communication with family and medical staff
If a Fitbit and the very high-tech equipment used in hospitals got together and had a baby, what would that look like? It might yield something way more compelling than a souped-up pedometer. And it would present special design challenges, too. The target user population has a whole raft of special needs that would need to be considered: lower vision, reduced dexterity, and less intuitive response to technology, for starters.
How Lively Works from Lively Inc. on Vimeo.
A few folks are taking a crack at designing what will be–for the company that cracks this nut–a very profitable product. But they are all just scratching the surface of what this could be.
Live!y is a sensor-based system (think Nest) that learns the patient’s typical behavior and notifies family members when they deviate from it.
Metria is a wearable that collects all sorts of physiological information and passes it along.
Jawbone UP lets more active seniors monitor their activity, caloric intake, and hydration levels.
But there is a lot of room to play in this emerging field. And someone will make a big difference, along with their big pile of cash.
So, here’s my challenge: Design a wearable for the elderly poor that will monitor physiological attributes, activity levels, deviation from normal behavior, and medicine and food intake. Allow the system to be monitored in real-time (and, of course) through alerts, by the patient, medical personnel, and the patient’s designee. Have it tie into the emerging systems for ongoing outpatient monitoring of the elderly to improve health outcomes and reduce costs. Someone can do this.