This post has been updated from an earlier version.
A few years ago, the AARP Thought Leadership group identified nine areas where it saw opportunities for technology to help address the needs of seniors 50 years and older in the report Health Innovation Frontiers. In a follow-up, AARP is working on a study focused squarely on the needs of informal family caregivers who may be Millennials, members of Generation X or older called Care Innovations Frontiers. AARP Director Jeffrey Makowka talked about the report and a caregiver survey it is compiling with HITLab as part of its Project Catalyst program at Health 2.0.
“Companies are designing technologies for caregivers, but it’s not getting traction and we want to know why,” Makowka said. He said the AARP has done a lot of research on the impact that caregiving needs have on family members such as lost productivity at the office but it has not yet focused on caregiver technology needs. “We are taking the concept of mapping a category of need and showing the market size for caregiving technologies.”
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The push follows a caregivers study AARP released earlier this year. It found that about one-quarter of family caregivers are Millennials aged 18-34; another 25 percent are Generation Xers. Both know their way around new technology and may be receptive to companies that could more adequately address their specific caregiving needs.
Earlier this year, AARP released results from the first part of the Project Catalyst initiative in which adults aged 50 and older evaluate digital health technology. Georgia Tech ran a study in which adults received and used activity trackers and provided feedback.
In another chapter of Project Catalyst, AARP is collaborating with HITLab to survey 1,200 informal family caregivers who provide eight hours or more of care per week. It would identify the kind of care they are delivering in the way of activities and daily living and whether they are currently using any technologies to help deliver care for loved ones. The survey will seek to identify pain points so the AARP can work with companies on how best to address them.
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The results of the survey will be used to identify four technologies to evaluate in the home.
Last week the AARP launched its $40 million Innovation fund with JP Morgan Asset Management that has three funding priorities: technology that supports independent living, access to healthcare — such as telemedicine — and preventive health. The fund could also be used to target caregiving technology needs identified in the survey or the Care Innovation Frontiers report.
To succeed, the Care Innovation Frontiers new report will have to be more laser focused on the specific needs of these family caregivers. One beef I had with the nine areas identified in the Heath Innovation Frontiers report is that it could pretty much apply to almost any group of people. After all, medication management, socialization, exercise and diet are hardly exclusive to seniors.
