Prior to Parks Associates’ sixth-annual Connected Health Summit: Independent Living and Wellness, Mike Maniscalco, CEO, Better Living Technologies gave his insights on top caregiver pain points with the firm's analyst team.

Mike will participate on the workshop panel Lessons Learned: Successful Strategies for Engaging Consumers on Tuesday, August 27, at 3:15 PM. Panelists who will join him on this session include:

• Steve Cashman, Chief Commercial Officer, InTouch Health
• Carina Edwards, CEO, Quil Health
• Davide Vigano, CEO and Co-Founder, Sensoria Health, Inc

What are top caregiver pain points? Are caregivers willing to pay for independent living solutions?

Caregivers are seeking tools that will reduce their burden and provide more peace of mind. Often they are losing sleep, struggling to maintain a career, and are overburdened and overwhelmed by the management of their family’s needs. They are looking for easy solutions that fit into their everyday routines at home, work, and on the run. The solutions must be plug and play or integrate with existing technology that is already a part of their life. These opportunities cannot be limited to basic mobile applications, they must expand into more modern and accessible interfaces such as consumer electronics, connected appliances, and smart home systems. Caregivers who provide assistance for children with chronic disease also need easy-to-order solutions that don’t require the added work of insurance claims, physician coordination, pharmacies and/or distributors to get a simple order processed.  For this reason, caregivers are willing to pay reasonable out of pocket expenses for products and services directly to manufacturers and service providers - if for nothing more than convenience!

Additionally, caregivers of children with chronic disease need credible, trustworthy and accessible support networks. In the age of social media, there is too much misinformation and unreliable “noise”, yet caregivers continue to rely on their social network heavily to learn about new technologies and solutions for disease management. With the professional healthcare providers often stressed, unable to offer more than a very limited time with their patients, caregivers feel like there are a few places to turn for basic information and daily support. A winning combination is to combine technical solutions with a full-service support network, including informal peer-to-peer support and professional support services that are accessible via chat, text, online social networks, and phone.