As the leading edge of the baby boomers turn 75 this year, the healthcare system is up for a challenge in the coming decades. Baby boomers, a population group that was born between 1946 and 1964, make up 22% of the US population (1). By 2029, this group will all be at least 65. The combination of the ageing baby boom population, their increase in life expectancy, and a reduction in the amount of younger people, all result in the baby boom population being larger than ever. This is a problem. Especially the last part. The decrease in the relative number of younger persons will result in fewer people available for the older generation to help. There is a major and quickly growing deficiency in the eldercare workforce (2). As such, innovative technology now come in to play, to address the challenges of senior living. Many of these technologies are built so that the elderly can spend longer in their private homes, and less in hospitals or institutes. These technologies thus also alleviate stress on the healthcare workforce.
With the rapid development of sensor networks and the Internet of Things, the potential of autonomous health monitoring systems has increased substantially. The implementation of fall detection systems using sensors is an example of this. With this wearable technology, the system can detect a fall and send an alarm with a message and location to caregivers (3). Another example of autonomous health monitoring is a refrigerator door alarm (4). Such alarms will notify caretakers whether a fridge has been opened by a certain time or if a fridge has not been opened for a long time. In doing so, caretakers know whether their patient is up and about.
Such autonomous technologies will be crucial to alleviate the challenge of elderly workforce deficiency in the near future. As the population grows older, and with fewer younger faces, it is vital for the elderly to be in good (technological) hands. In using such autonomous technologies we can maximise human effort where it is truly needed, and leave the simpler tasks to technology.
(2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00057-z
(3) https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijta/2015/576364/
(4) https://alzlive.com/news/good/fridge-sensor-offers-peace-of-mind/
