This post is sponsored by Samsung Business. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
One of the exploding areas of opportunity for healthcare is the growing senior market. It’s also one of its greatest challenges. Thanks to breakthroughs in medicine, we’re living longer and the number of seniors hitting retirement age continues to grow at an extraordinary rate.
With this growth in mind, we hear over and over again about healthcare solutions for seniors. This makes sense since seniors make up a large portion of healthcare dollars spent. Most of the health solutions targeted at seniors have focused on things like home health monitoring and remote health data collection.
While these solutions are powerful and interesting, lately I’ve come to realize that technology could play a much more powerful role in the health of seniors and it has nothing to do with the home health and remote monitoring technologies that are so in vogue. No, after many conversations I believe that even more powerful than health monitoring technologies is the way technology can improve a senior’s life.
This Samsung blog post highlights 5 major benefits seniors can receive from tablet usage:
- Social media: Keeping in touch with friends and family
- Content: Accessing information for leisure, learning and emergency preparedness
- Commerce: Convenient online shopping and access to user reviews for informed decision making
- Entertainment: Games and content that promote mental engagement
- Health: Accessing medical information, care plans, health apps and wellness content
One of the keys to keeping seniors healthy is to keep them engaged. Looking through this list might seem pretty rudimentary for the rest of us that live on technology. However, for a senior those social connections can mean the difference between life and death. Not to mention happiness in the life they still have left.
I saw this illustrated perfectly when my mother, who’s nearing retirement, told me that she was thinking about joining Facebook. This came as quite a shock to me since she’d always kind of shunned it as a waste of time and my mother (sweet as she may be) doesn’t have (or want) a cell phone. When I asked her why she was going to get on Facebook, she told me that she wanted to be on there because she believed that it would help her stay in touch with so many people she knows and loves (I hope that includes me, but is more likely my kids).
The great thing is that technology has now become really accessible for seniors. Take for example, the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S that was just announced today. It’s taken a number of years, but they’ve finally gotten the mix of tablet and laptop in one device right.
The Galaxy Tab Pro S has a really slim design that’s light. Both of these features are enjoyed by seniors, but especially the light part. As you get older, the weight of items really matters. Plus, the keyboard option is great for seniors since many of them know how to type, but don’t do well with the touchscreen keyboards. The 10.5 hours of battery life is great too since that means they can use it all day and charge it through the night.
Before I hear from all the naysayers about seniors’ aversion to technology (that’s generally a myth that needs to be debunked), It’s surprising how many seniors are really adept at technology. Plus, for those that are less adept, there are great companies like Breezie and grandPad that are building software on top of tablets that simplify using a tablet even more. It’s now easier than ever for seniors to access the internet using tablets.
What we need to remember in healthcare is that our health is determined by much more than visits to the doctor’s office and our vital signs. Our ability to connect with the ones we love impacts our health. The entertainment and education we consume affects our health. Our ability to be independent affects our health. The right technology in seniors’ hands can impact all of these health factors in a significant way.
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