GeriTech

In Search of Technology that Improves Geriatric Care

event reports

Health 2.0 in 2015: Big steps forward

This week I attended Health 2.0’s Annual Fall Conference for the third year in a row.

I came away more impressed than I’ve been in previous years. Here’s why.

The Unmentionables Focuses on Aging, Caregiving, and Hospice

The Unmentionables session hosted by Alex Drane is always terrific, but this year was especially so, since it focused mainly on aging and caregiving.

If the video is ever made available I’ll post it here. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with my Storify collection.

Particularly notable: [Read more…] about Health 2.0 in 2015: Big steps forward

Notes from the Institute on Aging’s Tech Conference


 

Last week I attended another one day aging & tech conference. But it was very different in feel compared to most events I go to, because this one was not hosted by an organization with an entrepreneurial background. Instead, the event was hosted by an aging services non-profit: the Institute on Aging (IOA). (Conference agenda is here.)

For those who aren’t familiar with the IOA,: it’s a terrific organization that has spearheaded a number of innovations related to better care of older adults over the past 30 years, including launching the first fellowships in geriatrics and creating the Friendship Line, the nation’s only crisis hotline to address isolation and suicide risk in seniors. (For more on the history of the IOA, see here.) The IOA has also often collaborated with the City and County of San Francisco on aging services.

This conference provided continuing education credits for nurses, social workers, therapists, attorneys, and residential facility providers. So the audience mainly seemed to be those individuals, rather than entrepreneurs and innovators.

This struck me as a bit of a pity, because the content of the talks seemed more focused on what aging people need — rather than how to make your entrepreneurial venture succeed — and I think the more entrepreneurs can hear about this, the better.

In truth, my overall impression was that this conference was “by the aging community, for the aging community” whereas most tech and innovation conferences are “by the innovation business community, for the innovation business community.”

Is there a way to merge these two groups more?? I don’t know the answer to that.

At the end of this post, I’ve embedded the Storify with all my tweets from the day, which hopefully will share a sense of the event, for those who weren’t able to attend.

A few particular talks that I really enjoyed

[Read more…] about Notes from the Institute on Aging’s Tech Conference

Notes from the Aging 2.0 Global Innovation Summit

This past week, I attended the second Aging 2.0 Global Innovation Summit.

I wrote about the first one here. It’s now a year later, and I would say that the health and aging experience of the average older adult still hasn’t changed much.

But this perhaps isn’t so surprising. It’s been said that

“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

So presumably we’re on track. The aging innovation community certainly seems to be growing and expanding its horizons, and this year again, I heard about many intriguing ideas and technologies.

I did live-tweet most of the summit, so for details on what was covered and what technologies were presented on stage, see the Storify here, or below. (Full disclosure: Aging 2.0 graciously extended a complimentary invitation to me.)

In the rest of this post, I’ll share some thoughts on what stood out to me during the conference.

Key Themes of the Aging 2.0 Innovation Summit

[Read more…] about Notes from the Aging 2.0 Global Innovation Summit