The Professional Geriatric Care Manager’s Blog

Elder Gadgets at C.E.S.

I love technology in all of its forms. Every year, a big trade show called the Consumer Electronics Show comes to Las Vegas, Nevada, and technophiles around the world spend hours on the internet glutting themselves on the wealth of new product information that’s released. Generally, nothing changes besides the products, of course. This year, however, something was different. There was a new showcase of products, called the Silvers Summit.

According to the official CES website, “The Silvers Summit showcases the products and services that keep boomers engaged, entertained, connected and healthy. Visit this destination to meet with distributors, journalists, research firms and manufacturers that will demonstrate the products and services that help mature consumers maintain a high quality of life.”

A large number new of products were showcased, many of them geared to assisting the elderly fulfill one of the goals we ourselves have set out for them – continuing to age safely within their homes. Because we live in a day and age where instant communication and constant updates are more than necessary, connectivity was a real issue covered by the products. One such instance of this was a system in which a number of single entities, such as a scale, pill box, and monitor would all be integrated to form one. The pill box would monitor when and what pills were being taken while monitors in the hall might spot falls, or the individual wandering out of the house, or using the bathroom excessively at night. Combined with the data from the scale, which would spot unhealthy changes in weight, the information would be compiled to see that a change in medication might affect a weight loss, or excessive bathroom use coupled with sleeplessness an indicator of some underlying problem.

Of course, this information being stored at home is not terribly useful. So the system is able to send out the data, or be checked remotely, by anybody with the proper authority. For example, the family caregiver, primary care physician and geriatric care manager may all be connected in and receiving timely updates on status changes. Detection and prevention systems like this will be immensely helpful in the coming years.

There are also problems with systems like this. There’s a good chance they’ll become treadmills to the elderly, purchased out of good intentions, yet gathering dust in reality. They will certainly be costly, and not covered by insurance. And for the physician in his office, it’s not quite so easy to diagnose something from a weight change or other anomaly. Cutting human interaction out of the equation will rarely be a good decision, but it might be a step in the right direction for safe in-home aging.

For more details on products and the summit, visit:

Silver Summit

NY Times