"I can see in an instant how she's feeling," Bashor said. "One evening, I noticed she was limping around her place, and I asked her why. If I had simply called her, she might not have mentioned she had fallen."
As Americans struggle to look after a growing older population coping with the chronic illnesses and frailties of advanced age, they're turning more to new technology -- including Web cameras, pillbox monitors, bathroom sensors and fall detectors -- to complement their hands-on care.
Baby boomers' longtime fascination with high-tech gadgets has merged with their elder care responsibilities and created a burgeoning market for such in-home devices and services.
"The technology revolution that's already transformed our lives in many ways, from e-mail to cell phones, is about to transform aging, too," said Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, a national coalition of technology companies, senior care providers and universities.
The technology has moved well beyond "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons.
Today, sensors can collect information about eating, medication use, sleeping and toilet habits and transmit it to the adult children or professional caregivers via the Web.
Other systems detect nighttime wandering and check blood pressure, body temperature and pulse. Bed sensors can even measure whether someone has gained or lost weight.
The systems raise inevitable questions about privacy, but Bashor's mother, at least, welcomes the videoconferences with her daughter and doesn't mind the camera in her living room.
"The fact that my family can see me and how I'm doing gives me a sense of security," said Esther Coker, who's 86.
Giant companies such as Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp. and Philips are entering the market, but much of the technology has come from entrepreneurs and start-up companies.
The AttentiveCare system, developed by Caregiver Technologies Inc. of Oklahoma City, provides a virtual window into seniors' homes. It also lets family members post photos of grandchildren and reminders about doctor appointments on the senior's video screen. Caregiver Technologies charges $200 for the setup and $60 a month after that.
Ken Nixon, president of the privately held company, designed the computer software to help with his mother, who was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at the time. He has since marketed AttentiveCare over the Internet and by word-of-mouth to about 100 other long-distance caregivers, mostly in the Southwest.
Bashor's home is in Lawrenceburg, Ind.; her mother lives in Fort Smith, Ark. When Bashor initiates their videoconferences, a bell rings in her mother's home, and the older woman sits down by the webcam.
"The beauty of this system is that it doesn't require the senior to do anything," Nixon said. "Most caregivers like to observe unannounced, besides doing videoconferences. You might say they're spying, but they do it out of love."
Another entrepreneur, Vestu Brue of San Antonio, heard friends fret that their aging parents weren't remembering to take their medications. Her answer was a "smart pillbox" called MedSignals that beeps at the appropriate times, dispenses the prescriptions, tracks the use and sends the information to a Web site.
Caregivers then can check whether their loved ones have taken their pills. Clinical trials have found that patients using the device are less likely to miss their medication than those who rely on memory.
Brue's company, LifeTechniques Inc., will ship the first pillboxes to
customers this month. MedSignals sells for $200; caregivers will pay from $3.50 to $15 per month for accessing their seniors' medication use.
Older adults' strong preference to "age in place" is largely propelling the development of the in-home technology, said Richard Lusky, chairman of the applied gerontology department at the University of North Texas.
But the technology benefits family members and professional caregivers as much as it does seniors because it eases the strain of caregiving, he said.
As the 65 and older population doubles over the next 25 years and threatens to overwhelm the nation's long-term care system, the technology may also help delay seniors' nursing home use and hold down costs.
Attracted by the prospect of serving 19 million Americans who care for older adults, Intel has formed a separate research and development unit to create and test an array of home health monitoring products.
"All of our tests have shown that seniors are quite capable of learning and using the technology if they understand the benefits of it," said Eric Dishman, manager of the company's health research and innovation group.
Experts predict the most successful companies in this field will be those that bundle their monitoring and measuring devices into a single package. Right now, Living Independently Group Inc.'s QuietCare may be the most developed system on the market.
With wireless sensors placed throughout the home, QuietCare informs authorized caregivers of any atypical activity that suggests a possible health problem. Frequent bathroom visits might signal trouble, for example.
The private company has sold several thousand systems to individuals and professional caregivers in its 2 years.
QuietCare will soon add a fall detection feature that's triggered when there's an unexplained lack of motion in the older adult's home or room.
"Most existing systems depend on a senior pushing a button for help," said George Boyajian, executive vice president of strategy, research and development for Living Independently. "But in three out of four falls, that doesn't happen."
Austin-based Senior Safe at Home will roll out a system in October that emphasizes both "high tech" and "high touch." The new company will combine home health monitoring equipment with home health care aides.
"The technology is just one component," said interim chief executive Sheri Easton-Garrett. "If someone has a fall, we'll install fall sensors, but we'll also do physical therapy in the home to reduce the risk of another spill."
The business venture grew out of a pilot project by Sears Methodist Retirement System Inc. of Abilene. The pilot found that in-home technology can postpone a senior's need for institutional care by an average of 18 to 24 months.
Easton-Garrett said the cost of the service will start at $35 to $40 per month, which will provide round-the-clock access to a call center staffed by nurses.
The C.C. Young retirement community in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas plans to partner with Senior Safe at Home early next year to provide care to older adults who want to remain at home, said Ken Durand, C.C. Young president and chief executive.
Durand sees senior living communities like his becoming testing grounds for technology that promotes independence. "I've learned that it pays to ride a horse in the direction it wants to go," he said.
A number of senior communities are installing home health monitoring systems because they believe the technology gives them a competitive advantage among prospective residents.
Classic Residence by Hyatt will put sensors in the independent-living residences of its planned building in Dallas, said Chet Phillips, Hyatt's vice president of information technology.
"Residents appreciate a safety system, as long as it's discreet," he said. "We'll place a single sensor between the bedroom and bath. If there's no motion for 24 hours,
it'll alert the concierge, who will send someone to check."
Oatfield Estates retirement community near Portland, Ore., is gaining attention for its extensive use of technology. Although many residents have dementia, the facility doesn't rely on locked doors to prevent wandering.
Instead, residents wear lapel pins that let sensors track their movements throughout the six-acre campus. With a resident's permission, family members can sign in at a secure Web site and follow that person's activities.
"Caregivers love it because they feel involved," said Lydia Lundberg, co-owner of Oatfield Estates. "That's especially important if the senior has Alzheimer's disease and can't tell his family what he's done that day."
Lundberg and her technology team designed the system's software and have begun to market it to other retirement communities through their new company, Elite Care Technologies.
Don Cline lives just minutes from Oatfield Estates, but he visits its Web site several times each day to see what his mother-in-law, 74-year-old Helen Watkins, is doing and what kind of care she's received from the staff.
"She shows up as an icon on my computer screen at home," said the retired air traffic controller. "I can see where she's at, whom she's having lunch with and how quickly the aides respond when she asks for help."
Though the monitoring is voluntary, most residents choose it because it gives them an added sense of security, Lundberg said.
Oatfield Estates includes the cost in its monthly service fee, which averages $4,800.
Dishman of Intel said seniors generally don't object to the monitoring on privacy grounds because they understand that the technology gives them more independence than they otherwise might have.
"They agree to use it because they prefer to be at home or in their own apartment than in a nursing home, where they'd have no privacy at all," he said.
Still, Sears Methodist chief executive Keith Perry admits that a few seniors sometimes resort to an old-fashioned technique to frustrate the newfangled technology.
"Some of the ladies will occasionally pull out a hanky and throw it over the webcam. I guess there's still a certain level of distrust."
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(c) 2007, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via Newscom.
Photo by Melanie Kutscha via Stock Exchange.
