Seniors and Technology: Why We Want Tech Innovations in Healthcare?

The current senior citizens are very health-conscious. However, study shows that they hesitate to communicate their health issues with healthcare professionals. Approximately, 65% seniors get care from family members or from theirs friends and remaining seniors are taken care by various healthcare organizations. There is a requirement for tech innovations to take place to help them.

Youngest baby boomer—born in 1964—will turn 67-year old by 2031 and become eligible to receive Social Security benefits. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, It is estimated that by 2030, seniors will make approx. 20% of the U.S. population and the percentage is expected to remain same till 2050. So, approx. 80 billion seniors will need healthcare assistance at that time and obviously to take care of this generation, future will demand robust healthcare systems.

To bridge this gap, the healthcare sector requires tech innovations, infrastructure and an increase in the number of healthcare professionals. This will prove to be time consuming and expensive. Another solution is to enhance the technologies and give a push to tech developments in the healthcare sector.

Technology in healthcare facilities improve communication between patients and healthcare providers, via connected medical devices. It helps to reduce costs & errors and enhance patient care, patient experience, and improve patient outcomes with better disease management. With the use of mobile and internet, one can book appointments of doctors and even get medicines delivered at home. Since many seniors face issues while visiting the healthcare centers, transportation related apps can help them travel without taking much efforts.

A research claims that approximately 55% senior citizens use smartphones, indicating that they wish to adapt the technological advancement. This adaption leads many healthcare organizations and pharmaceutical companies to collaborate with tech companies to offer enhanced and advanced solutions. Currently IBM, Microsoft, GE Healthcare and Koninklijke Philips N.V. are few of the major organization which are operating in the IoT in Healthcare market.

While the 55% of the population is served, the remaining 45% that may not have smart phones/devices still remains in dark, with the inability to use the healthcare apps. Tech innovators must develop the apps or devices that will be easy to operate and affordable for consumers.