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News
E-CareManagement
News
April 14, 2004
THE VIEW DOWN THE ROAD -- BABY BOOMERS WILL BENEFIT
FROM "HEALTHCARE
UNBOUND" TECHNOLOGIES
Forrester Research recently coined
the term "Healthcare
Unbound" to encompass the technology-enabled shift
toward self-care, mobile care, and home care. The Center
for Aging Services Technologies recently facilitated a
demo day for members of Congress and showed examples of "Healthcare
Unbound" technologies beginning to enter the marketplace.
Skeptics might point out that "If you look in the
rearview mirror at the road we've traveled over in the
past few years, consumer technologies haven't had much
on impact on health care."
....and they would be right.
HOWEVER, the view down the road for consumer health care
technologies is very promising.
So what's different looking
down the road instead of in the rearview mirror? Four things:
-
Baby
Boomers Will Have Far Greater Expectations for Health
Care Technologies
-
Prices Will Fall Dramatically
-
Technology Will Become
Part of the Background of Life
-
Technologies Will Integrate
and Work Together
Let's take a look at these one at a
time.
Baby Boomers Will Have Far Greater Expectations
of Health Care Technologies. The Pew Internet
Project report Older
Americans and the Internet reveals statistics showing
a startling generational digital divide. The percentage
of
Americans with Internet access varies dramatically
by age:
-
62% of Americans age 50-58 years-old
-
46% of Americans
age 59-68
-
17% of Americans age 69 and older
I have often remarked
that the Internet will have arrived for seniors when
my Mom (who just turned 80)
actually orders a pizza over the Internet. I'm still waiting....and my
Mom is blissfully happy remaining unwired.
Baby
boomers are a different story, however. As the Pew Internet
Project points out, "there is a burgeoning
group of Americans who are slightly younger but
vastly more attached to the online world".
Prices Will
Fall Dramatically. Some of the early devices used to
measure vital signs in
patient's
homes were built
by companies with a medical mindset. These
companies are used to charging a couple of million dollars
for a CT Scanner
or MRI machine, so what's the big deal with
selling
a bathroom scale for heart failure patients
with a price
tag of 6
or 7 thousand dollars?
 INTEL
ACTIVITIES
http://www.intel.com/technology/techresearch/research/rs03043.htm
Impact of Population Changes
-
Germany:
Taking the demographic change in the German population
into account, the big challenge for the health care system
can be seen clearly. With a proportion of 14.6% of the
people with an age of 60 years and older in the year 1950,
this group of population will have increased to about 40%
in 2040. At the same time, the amount of citizens younger
than 20 years will decrease, as a result of the decreasing
birth rates since 1970. [Source: Fed. Statistical Dep.
of Germany]
When analyzing the correlation of higher health care costs
and increasing age, one can conclude that the largest factor
is an increase in hospital stays. In fact, more than 40%
of all hospitality days are for over 64 years old patients.
-
Japan:
In 2000, elderly needing care (dementia, senile, edridden)
represented 2.8 million people yet there were only 700
000 beds in special nursing care facilities. By 2010, the
need for specail elderly is expected to go to 3.9 Million.
Japan’s over 65 population will reach 25 % by 2020,
well above that of Germany’s (next highest) of
21 %. Telemedicine seems to be moving from specialized
medical
appliances to low cost consumer devices. Now that the
telecommunications infrastructure is in place, home care
and distant monitoring
are viewed as ways of reducing healthcare expenses and
enhancing preventive diagnosis.
Direct patient care (or
DPC) is considered legal medical treatment in
Japan in two cases:
-
a patient with a chronic disease
in stable condition is re examined
-
patient resides
on a remote island, or in isolated areas or
the situation is an emergency
and there is no alternative
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