The Wired Adult

What Consumer Electronics Can Do for Your Health

How would you like an at-home health monitor that takes your vital signs, sends results to your doctor, your dentist, your adult child, then calls you with health suggestions, and reminders to take your pills? Well, it’s here.Amidst the iPhone apps, the kids games, and the cutting edge 3D TV, the real excitement of the Consumer Electronics’ Show in Vegas was the combined Silvers Summit and Digital Health Summit, the brain child of Susan Ayers Walters, who has been focusing on electronics for older adults before it was cool.You can review the products, presentations and partners at www.SilversSummit.com.

But, here is a brief review of the gadgets and devices that will change your future, one successful aging step at a time:Don’t like e-mail?  Know you need it?

Presto, is a “no computer” system that keeps us all connected. It converts a written note into e-mail, and then converts your return e-mail or digital photos into auto printed messages, delivered through the device. Presto looks like a fax machine, but is actually much easier to use.  www.Presto.com .Don’t like computers? Know you need one?“Go” a computer offered by MyGait, is the “fear-free” solution. It’s an adult friendly personal computer, that’s graphically beautiful, functionally complete, and non- intimidating. Find it and many other items I describe below at the ultimate catalogue store for older adults, www.firstStreet.com.

Don’t like cell phones? Need one?Telephones may dance and sing, but plenty of older adults still have seeing, hearing or just functionality trouble with them. The Jitterbug, www.jitterbug.com, introduced by firstStreet, is a phone that is user friendly, big buttons, easy applications and never confuses.

Those with hearing issues (and that’s one out of seven boomers) might opt for a Clear Sounds phone, www.clearsounds.com. Clear Sounds has so many unique features that I invited Strategy Guru, Michele Ahlman, to appear on my internet radio on January 20th, 1-1:30 pm to explain its benefits.  Tune in at www.LongevityClubOnLine.com

For anyone with difficulty holding a phone,  doro,  www.doro.com, weighs in with Doro Care Electronics products developed in collaboration with Ergonomidesign, specialists in the field of “Inclusive Design,” design for individuals with special needs. Aside from their award winning phones, they offer a simple to operate TV remote control.

Need relaxation?Although not at the CES show, my favorite at home health electronic system is Mr. Steam, www.MrSteam.com . I especially like its Butler’s Package of steam shower, chromtherapy and aroma therapy. One day, soon, I predict a mix of digital health monitoring, and spa quality baths. Toto the ultimate bath fixture company makes a great personal cleaning and drying electronic toilet seat “Washlet,” that allows you to handle intimate tasks with independence and dignity.

Want health monitoring? Hate doctor’s visits?MedApps, www.medapps.com, Remote Health Monitoring Solution offers a three -step digital health system for the home which connects your personal data with your healthcare provider's records. The process begins with HealthPal, which tracks your daily health readings and forwards the info to your health professional. Just attach it to your glucose monitor, scale, pulse oximeter or blood pressure monitor. Next, HealthHub is a docking station for  HealthPal, which sends the data to those authorized to receive it. Finally, your medical pro goes to HealthCom where he or she can view the data.

Quallcomm, www.qualcomm.com, also offers a wireless health monitoring system which collects bio metric feedback and diagnostic data through sensors on or even in your body. Data is received an analyzed remotely. You can watch how your heart rate or blood pressure reacts to your spousal fights, a cup of coffee, or a good belly laugh.  May be you will fight less, and laugh more. 

Need to know if your tech stuff all works together?Visit Continua Health Alliance, www. ContinuaAlliance.org, to learn which companies have met standards and criteria of excellence, which are making the effort to integrate all these devices so you can make sense of your needs. Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit organization and a coalition of over 200 leading healthcare and technology companies dedicated to providing personalized health and wellness management. 

Want research and innovation?Carnegie Mellon’s Quality of Life Technology Center, www.qolt.org , also established with the University of Pittsburgh, is the home for innovators seeking solutions to the challenges of lifelong independence and successful aging. With a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Co-director Takeo Kanade asserts, "We envision a future of compassionate, intelligent home systems — individual devices that you can carry or technologies embedded in the environment that monitor and communicate with people."

Need people who know the technology? You have people! “Care cierge” provider Lloyd Wilky of Extended Family, www.extended-family.net creates strategies for making sure you can always “age in place.” Located in Denville, his assessments include a review of the latest technology to keep you home and healthy, or to monitor your loved one. Wilky can sift through the new health and communication devices and make sure you have what you need. Extended Family’s “Safe at Home “program makes sure you make the transition from hospital back home with all right technology to keep you from relapse.

I have been researching the plasticity of the brain as we age. This is all part of a grant from the Department of Aging of the State of New York to the Mental Health Association of Rockland County, to which I am a consultant.

The grant feels like my baby because I conceived of a trial program at which seniors would take brain fitness exercises for a healthier mind set. We call our initative, “Strong Brain, Fit Brain, Smart Brain.” Part of the effort is to have at last 500 residents engage in an 18 month brain training program, and we emerge with a manual called “Celebrating the Aging Brain.”

We want to show that elders are not all senile, demented or even forgetful. We hope to change how we all regard the mind of the elder. In a time of financial scams, our oldest citizens are most flimflammed. It’s easy to see them as stupid, as well as vulnerable. In fact, the rich and educated are just as vulnerable. We don’t want a double punishment to come from all these crippling scams, financial loss and further ageist prejudice.

I am finding that brain plasticity allows for brain improvement and development at any age. Our marketing question is “What is the profile of the senior that is willing to engage in brain fitness exercises?” Do they also exercise? Read? Study? Have hobbies? Is there a cross over? Are they excited about life? Happy with their aging? Or perhaps not. Stay tuned.

It’s summertime and the movies are easy; some silly and some frightening. But all seem to have a boomer/senior bent, event the ones meant for kids.

Making my case:

UP, a great movie where both the villain and the hero are very old men. At an LA nursing home the crowd cheered when the protagonist picked up his walker and knocked out his nemesis.

The Time Travelers Wife-All about the nostalgia of longing for lost loves, and how they never fade. Lots of tears for those who have clocked in over 30 years of marriage, and who have come to realize that no good marriage has a happy ending.

Funny People-Recovered from a terminal disease, a high achiever comic learns that every minute counts. Who can argue? He is over 40 and admits that he feels old in a crowd of 20 somethings.  But ultimately, he gets fulfillment from work and success. Some people are not meant for the 2.3 kids and the normal life. Sound familiar? It’s the boomer’s mantra, even the ones with 2.3 kids and a normal life.

Super Bad-So it’s no longer in the movies, it’s raunchy, it’s for teens, and I saw it on TV. So throw up on my bed linens, who don’tcha? I loved it. The main character was the type of fat nerd I would have been in love with in 1962. I looked over at my husband who was watching it with me. Some things never change.

Here is a full article by John Jantsch-see his info below. I rarely publish something written by others, and a marketer no less. But this is exactly how I promote events for my clients among many other ways.

A friend of mine wants to promote a $1200 seminar and beliieves that e-blasts are enough. Nothing is enough these days to get through the noise. Read and reflect.If you want me to help you out on an upcoming event, or create one for you, just contact me by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I started doing live seminars twenty years ago and today they area also teleseminars , webinars etc. There is a protocol for this. You will find complete tutorials and audios on how to hold them at www.CriticalPathSuccess.com . IT TOOK ME ONE YEAR TO WRITE THE MANUAL AND MAKE THE RECORDING AND DEVLOP THE WORK BOOK, BUT I INCLUDE ALL YOU NEED WITHOUT EXPENSIVE EVENT PLANNERS ETC.

I got tired of hearing that "seminars don't work." They do work, but you must too.

Here is one aspect from John:

"There are dozens of sites and services set-up to help you promote events such as webinars, seminar, workshops, grand openings and product launches. While these tools are indeed online you can get benefit employing them for local offline events as well.

Use MeetUp and create a group surrounding your event – this might turn into something very valuable to do on an ongoing basis and create a nice way for you to build a local community.

Publish your event to some of the bigger online events calendars such as Yahoo's Upcoming or Eventful. These sites have geography built in and help promote events that are near users.

Create multiple Facebook pages or twitter accounts just for the event and post relevant information by building local followings through twitter search and Facebook Groups.

Do a series of interviews with participants in the event or to tease out bits of content that will be presented. Record these interviews as post casts and post them on your event pages, submit to iTunes and offer them to others to run on their sites. Just make sure it’s great content.

Upload transcripts from the interviews or slides you intend to present to sites such as DocStoc, Scribd, and Slideshare.

Include quick videos and photos of before, during and after the event and host on YouTube and Flickr for added exposure.

Submit press releases before, during and after the event to sites such as PR Web and PitchEngine.

Cross post as much information from all of this activity to all of your social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and twitter as all allow links to videos, audios and photos.

The short-term impact of working a system like this to promote an event or launch is greater exposure and hopefully greater participation, but the long term impact for future events may be the real payoff. As you get better at this kind of social media routine, you’ll find momentum building through search engine traffic too.

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John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide.

He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com"