Not only is it an inevitable fact of life, but it is also a part of the distribution of lifespans across the world that requires more state management with care and grace.  

As per the World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2020, globally, more people belong to the sexagenarian, septuagenarian, and older age groups than children with an age group of = 5 years.

(Source: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health).

WHO also predicts that with advancements in Medical Science, new-age medicines, and improved healthcare (in many countries), Average Life expectancy has increased.

(Source:  https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ )

With increased Life expectancy and an aging population, many aging populations are becoming lonely due to many social reasons and because their near and dear ones are too busy to focus on caring for their loved ones.

With all those undeniable social factors involved, technology comes to our rescue as a helping hand in such situations.

Technology for remote caring for your elderly loved ones:There are a few ways we can take care of our elderly loved ones, for example, keeping an eye on their vital signs, tracking their medications, measuring blood pressure and blood glucose on a routine basis, conducting healthy eating and weight management, enabling remotely conducted doctor consultations, etc.

 Let’s take a quick look at a few devices and apps that make the above activities easier for older adults and for the kin and carers of their elderly loved ones.

These appliances are the holy grail of emerging and already established technologies such as IoT, Semiconductors, real-time data streaming, processing, and serving insight on different platforms such as mobile platforms (Android /iOS-based apps) / SaaS-based web or desktop applications.

Health Monitoring Devices:

Fitness Tracker:  

Wearable devices primarily focus on fitness parameters (maybe more with customized or special features such as menstrual tracking, Family planning, etc.) such as activity, steps, sleep, active levels per hour, Heart rate (with different endurance levels), Body mass Index, Fat percentage, water Level, etc. 

It is more helpful for young Adults and people in their mid-50s than for the elderly community, who have different priorities and focus on life.

https://www.fitbit.com/global/in/home

Smart Watches:

A smartwatch is a household name amongst smart appliances globally. It includes most or all the functionalities of a fitness tracker, but it focuses on vital signs PLUS other features to consolidate multiple devices into a wearable.

Some smart watches offer call features (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LTE enabled) ,Internet browsing ability, Video call , ECG , Blood glucose levels & even GPS which allows  for elderly segment to carry less devices for their day to day activities , track health & stay connected to kins on the go.

https://www.apple.com/in/watch/ :

Apple Watch Series 8 provides ECG capability along with fall detection, SPO2, and an emergency response feature in the form of an SOS button.

Some other significant players in the market are Garmin Vivo Smart 4.0 & Google Fitbit.

https://www.garmin.co.in/

Personal ECG device:

We also see single-purpose / stand-alone smart devices in the market that allow a specific activity, such as capturing ECG readings, easily with a “device—phone” pair (if a smartwatch does not have thishttps://store.kardia.com/

Blood Pressure Monitor:  

A standalone device that collects our Blood Pressure metrics at a certain point in time & stores the data somewhere in the cloud.

The medical device market has a significant presence with trust in OMRON.

https://www.omronbrandshop.com/

Glucose Monitoring:

There are a few reliable glucose monitoring players in the market that any consumer segment can trust, ensuring the security of your health data.  (Considering your smartwatch does not have this feature.)

These devices come in handy when you want to control your body's glucose levels as part of your daily routine.

Two different flavours of product demand prevail in the elderly consumer segment. Some prefer Blood glucose monitoring daily for a more trusted and traditional method while cutting down on test facility visits. Some also like the non-invasive method used by CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) devices to collect glucose information.

Blood Glucose

Skin Surface Level Glucose

In essence, we can go on with these examples all day long, but intention was to enlist some of the popular devices that have made lives easier for consumers above 40+ age group in a large context.

Graceful ageing is key & innovation & invention is way to the treasure hunt for the key.