The move towards person-centred care is one of the main themes in upcoming assisted living facilities. With this method, care plans are customised to each resident’s preferences and requirements, giving them greater freedom and control over their everyday life. This strategy is being used more often by in home healthcare services to enhance the quality of life for its inhabitants.
Greater chances arise with longer life spans, not only for older persons and their families but also for society at large. These opportunities range from discovering new hobbies and improving professional routes to living better, spending more time with family, and giving back to the community. However, age-related health is a critical element that directly affects everyone’s possibilities, but it especially affects the elderly.
Technology appears to have an inspiring future! Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and robotics are advancing quickly. These technological developments can potentially change our world drastically in the next years.
These developments may also change how we care for our senior citizens in their areas. Future developments and inventions in healthcare services for seniors include:
- Wearable technology
- technology that prioritises voice
- Telemedicine
- Distant observation tools
- intelligent houses
- Virtual reality
- Virtual reality augmentation
- synthetic intelligence
These are the kinds of developments we might witness in the next years, not some distant fantasy. There are difficulties with every modification. We’ll need to think about things like data security and making sure these technologies are accessible and easy to use. However, there is a huge chance that we can resolve these problems and enhance the quality of life and well-being of older persons.
Upcoming Technologies for Elderly Care
Wearable technology uses sensors to track vital signs, identify falls or other crises, and transmit notifications to emergency services or carers as needed. Examples of these devices include smartwatches and medical alert wristbands.
They encourage healthy behaviours and make it simpler to identify changes in an older adult’s health by enabling them to track their exercise levels, sleep patterns, and medication schedules.
It’s critical to inform senior citizens about the uses and advantages of wearable technology and to create a network of support to ensure that they continue to utilise them.
Technology with Voice First
Voice-first technology enables inhabitants to effortlessly control their daily routines through the use of Alexa or comparable devices. Residents can ask for the daily calendar, book a salon appointment, see the weekly menu, and much more with voice-first technology. Compared to using an app or internet resource, research indicates that a large number of older persons prefer this kind of technology connection.
Telemedicine
Another innovation changing the way elderly adults are cared for is telemedicine. By the use of videoconferencing and remote monitoring, medical professionals can interact with elderly patients remotely, enabling them to receive prompt medical attention and minimise the necessity for expensive hospital stays.
Devices for Remote Monitoring
Seniors can monitor their blood pressure, glucose levels, and other health indicators with the use of remote monitoring equipment, which enables doctors to identify health problems before they worsen. We might see an increasing number of smart gadgets and medical-specific monitoring tools in our lives as time goes on.
Intelligent Houses
With the help of smart home gadgets, senior citizens can manage their lighting, temperature, and security features from a single, central location like their phone or a wall-mounted monitor which makes living independently easier and less physically demanding.
To notify carers or emergency services of odd activity or dangerous situations, sensor technology and voice command features can be employed.
Digital Reality
A relatively new technology that is becoming more popular in the care of older adults is virtual reality. It can lessen anxiety and sadness, assist in the care of dementia patients, and enhance general wellness.
Older individuals can play games, visit historical locations, and even take part in virtual exercise courses using virtual reality. With the use of this technology, senior citizens can be socialised with and engaged in a safe and regulated setting.
Virtual Reality Augmentation
Seniors may be able to take virtual tours of far-off locations they’ve always wanted to see or even return to well-known locations from their past using augmented reality (AR) from the comfort of their own homes.
Interactive games can assist enhance cognitive capacities and stimulate the brain in older folks.
Regarding physical well-being, elderly individuals may take part in AR-enabled physical treatment sessions, which would include virtual exercise demonstrations.
With AR, seniors may be able to engage in more immersive relationships with their loved ones. For example, they could be able to see their grandchildren’s school performance as if they were in person.
Computational Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) can drastically change the way older individuals are cared for by providing personalised care and support.
AI-powered robots can take care of household chores, prepare meals, and remind carers when it’s time to take on more difficult jobs.
To make sure that elders receive the proper care at the right time, AI can also evaluate health data, forecast health concerns, and create personalised treatment plans.
The modern in home healthcare services sector is integrating technological innovation into its ecosystem with caution. Consequently, the daily lives of patients and clinicians are impacted by digital health. Because the medical industry is built on a “klondike” of data and is supported by cutting-edge tech platforms and tools, as well as connected, informed patients and economic forces, it is susceptible to change and development.
Whether it’s senior care technology for the long term or evolving health problems, technology for elder care is already meeting some of the daily needs. Active assisted living (AAL) solutions include wearables, telemedicine software programmes, medical mobile apps, virtual assistants, medical alert systems, intelligent home monitoring systems, remote patient monitoring devices, and robotics applications. With the ability to self-monitor health status, encourage good lifestyle choices, encourage physical independence and social contact, facilitate early diagnosis, and ensure continued appropriate treatment, health technology becomes a care helper for older individuals.
Technology is a tried-and-true tool that is supporting the aged care industry in its efforts to become a unified, interoperable, standardised network as a component of the larger Medicare ecosystem.
The “digital transformation” of healthcare and “intelligent” things in care services are concepts that have been around for a while. However, the underlying idea behind all the hype is the same, appreciating the importance of healthcare.
The full care cycle, from the patient’s first interaction with the medical system through diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up management, is covered by these measurable outcomes and expenditures.
In actuality, more services exist that raise associated expenses without always producing improved treatment results, particularly when it comes to chronic and related illnesses. That’s exactly the situation that tailored healthcare solutions and digital technologies address. With health spending expected to rise, the developing health ecosystem which depends on the network of interconnected parties involved in senior health, such as payers from the public and private sectors, aged care facilities, providers, and suppliers is only expected to fully develop with the aid of digital technology. By prioritising patient-consumer convenience and reorienting the focus towards preventive rather than curative treatments, technology is intended to increase the capacity of healthcare services and lessen the load on vital health systems, which has positive cost and benefit effects.
