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Recent Telecare Soapboxes

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

Friday, 23 July 2010 16:19

In contrast to the thoughtful article by Dr. Miriam Stoppard that ran in the UK Daily Mirror a few days ago, this pastiche that appeared in the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger/NJ.com is not only half-baked, but also furthers the poor reputation of healthcare technology as 'gadgets', 'bye and bye in the future' and (of course) violative of privacy. By focusing on smart appliances that will tell if one is eating too much or too little, 'personal assistants' that will coach one on speeches and whiz-bang sensors that will tell if one is tense, it ignores what is here and now to help older people live better and more safely-- such as the pill reminders and the motion/gait/fall sensors that already exist. The MCT News Service (?) article is chock-full of these bits; the accompanying illustration does beg a question. If our lady on the couch hasn't moved in 24 hours, and only now the smartphone is 'deciding' (poor choice of words there) to call 911, the stove burner she left on might well have incinerated the house! Eat lunch before you read. [Ed. Donna--tip of the hat to a senior US telecare exec, who must remain anonymous, for contributing.]

Comments (1)

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

1 Tuesday, 27 July 2010 08:56

Jeremy Lisnkell

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.

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