High-Tech Devices Keep Elderly Safe From Afar
New York Times, May 25th, 2008
First thing every morning, Lynn Pitet, of Cody, Wyo., checks her
computer to see whether her mother, Helen Trost, has gotten out of bed,
taken her medication and whether she is moving around inside her house
hundreds of miles away in Minnesota.
Last summer, Mrs. Trost’s husband had a stroke and died, but she
wanted to stay in the house, in Mankato, where she had lived for 36
years. She did not want a live-in helper, and she cannot drive. At 88,
Mrs. Trost has macular degeneration and takes medications for seizures, memory loss and restless leg syndrome.
“She’s a feisty gal,” Mrs. Pitet said of her mother. “She is fine
when she takes her medicines, but, even so, I was terrified of leaving
her alone.”
Mrs. Pitet and her sister decided to become part of a small but
growing number of people who have installed motion sensors and a remote
monitoring system to keep aging relatives safe. Sensors attached to the
wall are able to register when Mrs. Trost gets out of bed and whether
she stops at her medication dispenser, and to alert her daughters to
any deviations from her routine that might indicate an accident or
illness. The family is updated by electronic report every morning.
Monitoring systems like these, which go far beyond the emergency
response buttons that have been around for years, are not found in many
homes yet. Privacy is an issue for some older people, and the basic
package can range from $50 up to $85 a month for the motion sensors and
remote monitoring system like Mrs. Trost uses. More comprehensive
packages can include devices to track blood pressure, weight or respiration.
Experts on aging say the systems will become commonplace as the 76
million baby boomers approach ages when disabilities or conditions like
diabetes and failing eyesight
jeopardize the ability to live independently. The population of those
65 years and older is almost 40 million today, and the federal Census Bureau says that will more than double, to nearly 87 million, by midcentury.
Right now, there is little federal health care reimbursement for
such devices. And private insurance coverage is evolving because the
area is new, said Dr. Jeremy Nobel, a professor at the Harvard School
of Public Health who co-wrote a study on the feasibility of such
technologies. “We are at the beginning stages regarding the
availability of such services and before business models are
developed,” said Dr. Nobel, a medical doctor. “I expect we’ll see a
significant increase in the adoption of such systems in two to five
years, and widespread adoption in 10 years.”
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