Newsmaker: Betting on the future of eldercare tech

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When you look at this group of 15 percent that may be involved in elder care, how would you describe their maturity level? Is this segment still in its infancy, or is it a mature group?
Alwan: I would say that we're in the phase of scoping out the landscape, probably initiating feasibility studies of product concepts, but not quite yet at the phase of launching product development.

What role is CAST playing in helping companies determine whether a market exists for their members' products and assisting them in determining the best way to reach that market?
Alwan: There are two sides to your question. The first side, as I understand, is what pertains to actual needs assessment of seniors and doing or getting involved in market research. CAST has already played a role and conducted a study in 2005. It published a white paper on the CAST Web site on seniors' needs. Again, the study was based on focus groups conducted in five different cities nationwide and it presented a 10,000-foot view of the baby boomers and the current seniors' needs in terms of technology. If they build it, would they buy it, for example. Are they willing to pay for technology and so on and so forth.

This is something that CAST has been involved in and also this is something that is of interest to me personally as a researcher.

Regarding the other side of my question. Will you help companies determine the best marketing approach for their products, or does CAST plan to let the companies figure that out themselves?
Alwan: This is a very, very good question. CAST, in the past, has conducted studies on the state of aging-services technology by scanning what's available in terms of product, who these products are targeted at, what features do they have, what advantages do they have, what unintended disadvantages do they have, and we are in the process of updating this research. We expect to deliver an updated version of this paper by the end of this year or by the beginning of 2008. In that paper, we will also not only provide a definition and vision and categorization and description of these technologies, but also we're going to discuss some of the barriers to the proliferation of these technologies and also what are the potential accelerator models that would accelerate the adoption of these technologies.

Is it by selling directly to the seniors? Or is it by selling directly to the adult child caregiver, the informal caregiver or any promising care models out there that would play a significant role, especially in the initial rollout phase of these products on the large scale?

Who's going to pay for these technologies and how much of a barrier is that?
Alwan: I think it's going to be a fairly substantial barrier. But then again, people sometimes expect the government to pay for everything, and we need to acknowledge that if we want these technologies to be adopted and proliferated we cannot wait for the government to change the policies to make these technologies reimbursable.

We need to look at pioneers, pioneering eldercare providers, pioneering companies who would embark on demonstrating the efficacy and the effectiveness of these technologies. And if these technologies have proven cost-effective and the proof is scientifically sound--for example, the studies are done on a fairly rigorous scientific basis--you can take the evidence and present it to policy makers and present it to insurance companies, who, based on this evidence, would make changes into the payment systems.

Another perspective is showing value. If this technology is going to reduce out-of-pocket payments for an adult child caregiver under the current reimbursement system, and it doesn't cost much, or if the return on the adult child's investment in this technology is a few months of out-of-pocket payments, the adult child would be willing to pay for the technology and adopt it.

Do you ever think we'll get to the point of being like the futuristic cartoon The Jetsons, where robots will be providing daily living assistance?
Alwan: No. What I aspire to see is technologies that are better integrated, that pieces of hardware will talk to each other, even if they were not from the same provider. This pertains to one of CAST's focus areas--primarily, creating standards for information exchange and integrating the information into personal health records and electronic health records that are accessible, secure and available all the time.

Technologies that are acceptable and context-aware do not require significant interaction or correction from a user, whether it's a nurse or a senior. The main things are a fully integrated spectrum of services and linking information to all the parties that need to have access to the information anytime.
 

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