Although current LTC [long-term care] delivery options like retirement homes and assisted living communities offer around-the-clock care, their high cost can bankrupt seniors and cause serious financial hardship for loved ones. According to a 2012 survey by MetLife, a private room in a nursing home costs an average of $248 daily, or more than $90,500 annually; a semiprivate room costs $222 daily, or more than $81,000 per year.The vast majority of the elderly want to remain in their homes as long as they can. Concerned family members, of course, monitor their aging loved one's condition with visits, phone calls, professional home-health care, and technology. Regarding technology, we agree from sad experience with the observation about the current generation of medical alert devices: "while these devices can be helpful in the event of a fall or a home emergency like a fire, their capabilities are limited."
But there is a great deal of hope; part of the revolution known as the Internet of Things includes smart sensor networks for the home.
These sensor-enabled homes use machine learning to recognize behavior patterns such as eating, sleeping, and movement, and then identify and report any signs of illness or cognitive degeneration to caretakers and physicians via the Web or mobile networks. The monitoring capabilities also alert physicians to changes in the physical and mental health of their senior patients, and allow them to intervene before adverse events occur. [snip]There are obstacles, such as privacy and security, to be worked out, but the growing LTC problem makes technological progress toward solutions inevitable.
Compared to the high cost of traditional assisted-living facilities and nursing homes, sensor-enabled smart homes are relatively inexpensive. Retrofitting a home with sensor technologies costs $2,500, on average, for hardware and installation fees, plus a modest monthly fee for monitoring and analyzing the data.
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