re:Your Friday 'I can't believe this is in the paper...'

One could get very hot under the collar about such an article, but I would like to offer a crumb of circumspection. I think what we have here is a muddling of two concepts; wellness and illness. Some of the examples in the illustration are 'interesting' to say the least, but the idea of monitoring mundane aspects of daily life to identify potentially unwelcome changes, such as missing your favourite TV programme, are being pretty well explored in various research projects in the field of domotics [home automation-Ed. Donna]. I personally feel that such an approach has much to offer in supporting 'wellness'. It's a shame that the article chose to couch it in terms relating to illness and other 'acute' scenarios.

Editor's note--Thank you Jeremy for this insightful comment.  The approach could have been the writer's lack of understanding or skill in communicating the importance of behavioral changes as a leading indicator of a potentially dangerous situation.  (Note for one all the caveats in that last sentence!)   Telecare or remote behavioral monitoring is also largely centered on ADLs--activities of daily living--and converges with domotics.  The 'selling' part of course has been the acute episode; the equally valuable information on behavior that deviates from the baseline (from my LIG/QuietCare days) as a leading indicator of 'what' is far harder to explain and to communicate value, especially to a general audience. Donna.