Trend: Higher-end monitoring for seniors at home

According to one statistic, 19 million Americans are caring for someone over 75  years old. If the elderly person doesn't live with the caregiver, how does that caregiver--typically usually a harassed working mom or dad with huge responsibilities of their own--keep track of whether their elderly family member is safe?  Increasingly, home monitoring companies are moving beyond the "alarm button" necklace, good only when the senior knows to or cares to push the button, to more comprehensive systems that monitor the senior's patterns of activity with sensors and video. (Sometimes "I've fallen and I can't get up!" doesn't do it.)

This is largely a consumer solution at this point, but I'd argue that it makes sense for professional healthcare agencies, larger medical groups and hospitals concerned with tight post-inpatient symptom control to consider. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Learn more about the eldercare monitoring trend:
- read this article in The New York Times

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