Senior Housing and Assisted Living

A new low-tech elder monitoring service called FineThanx recently made its debut that utilizes only the existing phone system at home.  The system calls twice a day find out how an aging loved one is doing and reports the response or lack thereof in either case.  The automated phone service checks in with seniors once or twice a day.  If no one answers, or if a client needs assistance, the system immediately calls a "care circle" of people who can seek care for the client.  If the client is fine, the system sends reassuring e-mail messages to the client’s families, friends or health care professionals.  FineThanx charges $34.95 a month for the service and offers a seven-day free trial period.

Remember the phrase “Internet Tsunami” circa 1998?  I read a newspaper article read a few weeks ago that looked back at the dot com bubble and examined at how we have evolved with the internet and technology over the last 10 years.  Take a minute and think of all the dot com clichés …got ‘em yet?  Everyone had an idea on becoming an ‘Internet millionaire’ and how the web will transform the world overnight and dramatically change the way we live. Things didn’t change magically overnight but society’s level of connectedness has dramatically increased in the last 10 years. Many of the premises and concepts of the “Internet Revolution” have come to fruition and our technological transformation has been an ‘evolving revolution’, not an overnight sensation. 

The “Silver Tsunami” evokes the same sense of optimism and entrepreneurial spirit about the future business possibilities of the demographics in the US and other parts of the world. Yet the concern is that everyone will want to jump on the “Silver Bandwagon” (are you having déjà vu yet?) and create an inflated hype surrounding all things senior.  The senior living industry has been somewhat deflated with economic downturn and the woes in commercial real estate but as the economy recovers, let’s see how quickly small business and the media start re-inflating senior living. Will the Silver Tsunami turn into the Silver Bubble?  Probably not but that won’t stop entrepreneurs dreaming and the media selling the drama of all things “Silver”.

The TRIL (Technology Research for Independent Living) Centre, Ireland announced this week a new industry partner, GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE). TRIL is a research initiative, founded in January 2007 by Intel Corporation and the IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency), to explore the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing and design technologies to help address them. The addition of GE Healthcare as an industry partner will help TRIL to extend and expand its research programme. GE joins the TRIL Centre as its second industry partner for 2010, alongside co-founder Intel and academic partners University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway. GE Healthcare is investing $3 million in the TRIL Centre.

“We are excited about welcoming a new industry partner with the technology expertise and stellar reputation of GE Healthcare,” says Dr. Brian Caulfield, Academic Director of the TRIL Centre. “Their focus on innovative thinking and commitment to improving healthcare while reducing costs will make them a valuable contributor to our research efforts.”

A key goal of TRIL’s research, which brings together world-class industry and academic experts from multiple disciplines, is to enable older people to live independently in the homes of their choice for as long as possible, with the help of technology—and in the process, to help ease the strain on global healthcare systems as the world’s population ages. This objective aligns with GE Healthcare’s goal of continuously developing innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency.

Commenting on the announcement, Agnes Berzsenyi, General Manager of GE Healthcare’s Home Health business says “We are delighted to be part of the TRIL Centre and to be involved in the groundbreaking research being done there. The world is getting older and this is presenting enormous healthcare challenges in the care of elderly citizens and the prevention and management of chronic disease. We are looking forward to working with TRIL to drive innovation in this emerging area and ultimately transforming the lives of elderly citizens.”

Over the last three years, more than 600 older adults have been assessed in the TRIL Clinic and a large number have participated in the TRIL technology home deployment programme. The commitment of GE Healthcare will enable TRIL to expand the pool of participants and build on the accomplishments of the first three years. The addition of GE Healthcare as an industry partner supports TRIL’s strategic vision of securing additional industry partners, from SMEs to multinational companies such as GE and Intel, to advance its important research effort.

By Jody O’Donnell, SEO Manager, G5 Search Marketing

Many senior housing and living providers ask the million dollar question: Which directories are the best for me to sign up for?  The answer to the question should end “with regards to my SEO?”  

When developing your target list of directories, first establish a clear objective. Are you trying to get good, trusted citations from directories and improve the consistency with which search engines see your business information across the Web? Or are you trying to drive traffic directly to your website?

The first objective is back-linking while the latter is more about driving traffic and conversions.  This is an extremely important distinction. Deciding which is more important will point you to the best directories to accomplish your goal.

Many directories are built more for search engines than for human users.  It doesn’t take long to look at a directory and identify which audience they are targeting.  One tell-tale sign a directory is targeting search engines is how they list.  If they don’t use images or anything else to give a real live person more information about what your listing is, they are focusing on search engines. Search engine citation style directories will have your business information and little else, as illustrated by this example:

Directories that are more traffic driven sites generally have links back to the pages and have rich content for each listing. This can range from pictures to driving directions to operating hours, etc., as illustrated by this example:

Some of the best directories on the Internet are entirely free. There are various levels of time and effort you must commit to successfully take advantage of these directories. The commitment varies on a directory-by-directory basis.

The foremost free directory is DMOZ. This site gets a lot of credence from the search engines because it is well edited and has been around for a long time. It boasts a shocking PageRank of 8, a rating Google assigns to websites that shows authority based on a scale of 0 – 10. Some other general high quality free directories are business.com and Yahoo!.

The downside to a free directory is the application process and the data entry required. Denial is not uncommon, particularly for DMOZ. And be aware of paid directories that look to be the exact same as other directories. Search engines inherently give less credence to any links that cost money and are not specified in the HTML as a paid link.

There are many generic directories that cover varied industries across the Web. These are just general directories (not unlike the Yellow Pages) and may not be as valuable as finding one that is more specific to your industry. The more specific the directory, the more it can boost your SEO industry expertise.

It is much more valuable to optimize your website by finding a directory that aligns with your specific business. For example, if you have a website dealing with Assisted Living, you will want to find a directory that specializes as close to this industry as possible. A generic Senior Living or Senior Care directory, while still valuable, is not as valuable as a directory that deals just with Assisted Living. A more targeted directory will likely give a larger boost to your website SEO and citations because it is as close to your business as you can get. Listing your Assisted Living business in a directory for Defense Lawyers is probably not going to do much for you.

Directories can be helpful in getting good, accurate citations to your websites. They can also drive traffic and calls-to-action (phone numbers, brochure requests, etc.) for your communities. It takes time to research, time to apply and time to track your return. But it can increase your online profile, and thus your leads and potential business opportunities – making it worth the effort.

By Jody O’Donnell, SEO Manager, G5 Search Marketing

What do you think about internet sites and their ability to influence decisions for senior housing?  Are you as connected (facebook, twitter) as the media is portraying?  As more and more organizations are touting the connectedness of mature consumers, here is your chance to participate in the study.  Marketing agency Creating Results is conducting a national research project aimed at uncovering attitudes and preferences of mature (40+) consumers towards social media and the Internet. Unlike other recent research, the two-survey effort looks at the satisfaction, frustrations and motivations of older people online.  Creating Results has been working with leading CCRC’s and is now opening the survey up to any Internet users ages 40 and up.

Social media survey:  http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/233384/40-plus-social-media

Opinions on web site usability and the role sites play in move decisions are welcomed at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/249736/40-plus-web-preferences.

The online surveys will close April 25, 2010 and the results will be shared here on SHN.

Pfizer Inc. and Acacia Living, Inc. (Acacia) recently announced a strategic alliance to develop an innovative holistic technology solution dedicated to helping seniors age positively and independently.  Acacia Living is developing an at-home assisted living connectivity platform to support the ability of a growing aging population to live independently, by improving what Acacia calls access to C.A.R.E.: Community, Activities, Resources, and Education.

The Acacia platform is expected to support an expanding community of content, services, e-commerce transactions, social collaboration and engagement tools, as well as comprehensive financial, health and wellness decision-making and support tools. By enabling Acacia Living to access Pfizer’s networks, resources and expertise in medicines and healthcare, Pfizer hopes to play an even greater role in improving the lives of individuals and families facing the inevitable challenges of aging.

“At Acacia Living, we recognize that as the population continues to age, it faces a growing universe of physical, economic and medical challenges that can be difficult to navigate. Our solution is Acacia, a connectivity platform intended to improve access to the tools and resources seniors need to help them live more productive healthier lives than they can today,” says Acacia Living’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Rick Slager, who has provided care and support services to seniors and their families for nearly 30 years.

“Seniors represent a rapidly growing population globally whose independence and complete health and wellness needs are not fully understood,” says Usama Malik, vice president of Worldwide Innovation at Pfizer. “The Acacia platform is intended to be the first of its kind to holistically engage and empower seniors, their families and caregivers to enable seniors to live happier, healthier, more independent lives. Pfizer is committed to providing seniors with high quality and affordable consumer-directed health and wellness solutions, and this innovative partnership with Acacia Living further demonstrates our commitment to empowering patients and consumers.”

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG)  recently announced the introduction of its enhanced medical alert service dubbed Lifeline with AutoAlert.  The solution combines the Philips Lifeline medical alert service with automatic fall detection capabilities that allows fall detection if a senior is unable to push the alert button.  According to a LifeAlert laboratory study of simulated falls, Lifeline with AutoAlert detected 95 percent of many types of falls and had a low rate of false alarms.

"One of the greatest threats to seniors is falls and associated injuries," said Walter van Kuijen, senior vice president and general manager, Home Monitoring, for Philips Healthcare. "For the cost of a cup of coffee a day, Lifeline with AutoAlert can help seniors maintain their independence and provide their caregivers even more peace of mind."

The Technology Strategy Board announced its commitment to supporting innovation in Assisted Living by stating it will invest £6.5 million in six collaborative research and development projects to be completed by 2012/2013 that will develop new technologies to help the elderly and those with long-term health conditions. The projects will address the need for health and care technologies to embrace the changing telecommunications environment. While many of the sensors that will be required for remote health and care services are available now, the six research and development projects will look to combine these with advanced telecommunications. 

The public sector investment of £6.5m includes £1m from the Department of Health National Institute for Health Research and over £900,000 to participating universities from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.            

“Our aim is to support the development of technologies that will lead towards truly independent living for those with long-term conditions and the elderly. In the longer term, the opportunities are for the development of entirely new services in which health and care follow the individual and are delivered wherever and whenever needed,” said Graham Worsley, who leads the Technology Strategy Board’s Assisted Living Innovation Platform.

Looking for an advanced and affordable personal monitoring solution for yourself or a loved one?   Wellcore Corporation, which unveiled its Mobile Personal Emergency Response System product at CES in January, recently spent time with Senior Housing News providing a demonstration and talking about the rollout of its new Personal Activity Monitor (PAM) system.  Unlike other Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), Wellcore’s technology automatically detects falls through its patent-pending technology and sends help immediately without the need to press a button but also maintains the same push-button notification system found in other PERS products.  Upon notification of a fall, Wellcore’s service contacts the wearer to assess the level of emergency and can send emergency services or other care givers dependent upon the contact with the system’s user.  The base station has a range of several hundred feet and the monitoring device has a fall detection accuracy detection of almost 98% according to Wellcore once the system learns a user’s activity profile.

In order to remind users to wear the product, the Wellcore system sends friendly reminders through the base unit, asking to be worn, and a notification that appears on the online dashboard. If the sensor is left unworn for an extended period of time, an email message is sent to a designated caregiver or family member.  The waterproof, brushed aluminum device is small enough to be worn on a belt and has the shape and feel of an IPod Shuffle and was designed to be functional and discreet.  The battery is designed to operate for 2-3 days on a full charge and notifies the user when the battery life is running low.  The device also has the ability to be paired via Bluetooth technology to compatible cell phones that will allow monitoring outside the range of the base station.  When a fall is detected, the cell phone summons emergency responders to the exact location of the fall using the cell phone’s GPS, and caregivers are alerted. Alerts from the system can be live phone calls, based station messages, emails and text messages to all interested parties required to be notified as part of the system’s configuration.

The system incorporates use of a web-portal to track motion, learn patterns and provide statistic and analytical data to help users and caregivers by providing a means to see & setup notifications and alerts.  The customizable alerts can be emails or text message to multiple caregivers and a text to speech interface allows portal users to send message to the base station for reminders and other notifications.  The portal allows users and caregivers to monitor daily activities and track statistics for various analytical purposes.

Wellcore, based in Silicon Valley-based company, recently received a new round of venture capital funding to continue developing and market the product and service.  The company is currently selling the system from its website and select retail e-commerce stores in April 2010.  The PAM is set to ship in April with pricing for the base package and one monitoring device for $199 and additional devices are sold separately for $99.  The monthly service’s introductory pricing has been set at $49.99.  For those looking for a PERS product, Wellcore’s entry is a sophisticated product with a reasonable price point with many uniqure features compared to other PERS products in the market.

 Masonicare Healthcare Center, a senior services provider in Connecticut, announced that it is implementing InteGreat EHR for its web-based electronic health record management system.  The Masonicare Health Center, which provides acute care, skilled nursing, assisted living, independent living, outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation, and several specialty clinics and therapies, will use the system to manage workflows to improve clinical and operational outcomes.  InteGreat EHR has has been deployed to over 13,000 users nationwide on its application service provider (ASP) model that allows an EHR solution without the need for IT issues to support the system.

"We selected MED3OOO as our healthcare management partner last year for Revenue Cycle Management, Practice Management Oversight, and Coding Services, and have been tremendously pleased with the results and improvements we have seen with our operations," said Bill Piper, Senior Vice President for Continuum Services for Masonicare. "It only made sense to select the InteGreat EHR technology, knowing that MED3OOO will continue to provide us direction and strategy to make sure the product will be successfully implemented and meet Meaningful Use requirements. The advantage of partnering with MED3OOO is that they have operational expertise and understand workflows.