Prior to Parks Associates’ sixth-annual Connected Health Summit: Independent Living and Wellness, Kerrie Holley, Technology Fellow, Optum shared his thoughts on the connected health market with the firm's analyst team.

Kerrie will participate on the Fireside Chat—AI in Health: Creating Personalized Insight panel on Wednesday, August 28, at 11:45 AM. Panelists who will join him on this session include:

• Brenda Cass, Data Science Strategist, Validic
• Jeff Cutler, Chief Commercial Officer, Ada Health

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

IoT solutions may be a misnomer given the changing technology landscape and I see this as “new digital health solutions” which encompass components that are not strictly IoT, but rather combine IoT with other technology solutions using ambient and affective computing powered by AI technologies.

As individuals age, their health and activity may decline, making it more difficult to accomplish activities that contribute to good health, like getting to doctor’s appointments, working out and socializing with friends and family. Unfortunately, subtle signs can easily be missed because often times patients are only seen once or twice a year by a physician. This puts physicians and care teams in a reactive mode, instead of being able to proactively address health, lifestyle and other issues. 

In thinking about how IoT solutions or new digital health solutions can help solve this, we can see in the early stages of ambient AI, data streams from sensors, wearables, cameras and other sources can be combined to give a comprehensive picture of a person’s health.  

Alerts can assist seniors’ care team in acute cases, such as atrial fibrillation. But a continuous stream of data, when processed by effective analytics, using AI, can alert care teams before issues even arise. Motion sensing and fall detection in the home helps with digital health related solutions targeted at home healthcare for seniors. The amount of activity seniors getting or not getting can help care teams intervene to suggest lifestyle changes. 

For clinicians, payers and patients, being able to capture and make sense of valuable data that previously slipped through our fingertips is a powerful way to help seniors age well and maintain their health and independence.