Prior to Parks Associates’ sixth-annual Connected Health Summit: Independent Living and Wellness, Jennifer Fraser, Director of User Experience, Macadamian, shared her thoughts on the connected health market with the firm's analyst team.

Jennifer will participate on the IoT Integration: Effective Connected Health Partnerships panel on Thursday, August 29, at 1:15 PM. Panelists who will join her on this session include:

• Dr. Renee Dua, Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Heal
• Jim Hunter, CTO, Delos
• Kevin Kraus, Director Technology, ASSA ABLOY/Yale/August Locks
• Dev Singh, CEO, ViKi Health AI

What features of wellness and fitness apps are in highest use? Which are in highest demand?

From our experience, it's the features the can quickly bring meaningful value to the end user. Peoples' time is in demand and is spread thinly across multiple apps and devices. To try and invoke a behaviourchange to introduce a new product or service, you need to very clearly understand the needs of who you are targeting and be able to quickly demonstrate the value, to them, of using your product or service.

What is driving early consumer use of telehealth/virtual visit services? What factors most impact the experience?

From speaking with our partners at the BruyèreResearch Institute, the factor that most impacts the experience is how "quietly" it can fit into the life of the consumer and their caregiver. The more unobtrusive it is, the better. To minimize any interaction, set-up, or support is critical to its adoption.

What needs do seniors have as they age that could be addressed by new IoTsolutions? How open are they to assistive technologies, products, and services?

Unobtrusive monitoring and sensors for individuals with cognitive impairments is an area of growth and interest for research with our partners at the BruyèreResearch Institute. With regards to openness for assistive technologies, there is more and more uptake of tablets and smart phones and access to broadband services in North America, so most seniors are fairly accepting of the technology of an unobtrusive monitoring platform. But, from Bruyère'sexperience, "unobtrusive" is the key, they were accepting as long as it was something that they didn't need to interact with, or set-up, or deal with when it wasn't working.

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

Ease of use is critical for any kind of solution to assist caregivers. They are already carrying a heavy burden, and, from the research done at the BruyèreInstitute, time is critical to caregivers. If it is a system that they will be required to interact with, the quality of support for them to use it is critical to the successful use of the product, otherwise they simply will not use it.

Further Reading:

• Telecare in the EU: Smart Home and Independent Living
• 41% of current caregivers are concerned about social isolation for their loved ones
• 360 View: Independent Living: Senior & Caregiver Perspectives