How Technology Can Help Seniors Live Independently for Longer
Long before Christopher Palmieri became President and CEO of Commonwealth Care Alliance (CCA), he found himself surrounded by caregivers.
“Caring for people is in my blood,” Palmieri told me. “Many of my siblings work in nursing home administration, my uncle owns a nursing home and my mother is a nurse.”
But it wasn’t until college that he became “fascinated with the business side of healthcare.”
“I fell in love with this population and learned the art of how to leverage insurance to help keep people home and healthy,” he explained.
Since entering into the world of senior care, what changes have you seen?
Over the twenty years I’ve been in the industry, I’ve seen a lot of growth — particularly from technology. But we’re also seeing the availability of better pharmaceuticals to manage chronic conditions. Thanks to these types of advancements, people are living longer and want to stay at home. “Facility” has almost become a negative word in the field, as more people are demanding individualized care and not the typical cookie cutter approach, irrespective of a person’s age.
What promising technology have you encountered that you believe will help seniors live independently for longer?
I believe so strongly that technology is the future of our industry that we’ve created Winter Street Ventures at CCA to drive innovation. On the market right now, there are tools, algorithms and AI that help us predict healthcare events. When we can figure out potential health risks we may not have seen on our own, we can treat them better and more effectively care for patients. The medical device space is growing, with technology that reminds people when to take medicine, dispenses it for them and takes a photo to share with caregivers — which is especially important when working with the population that we do at CCA. This is the beginning of cutting-edge technology that works in physical and social care that helps patients get what they need while staying as independent at possible.
Marketing to seniors can be challenging. What types of marketing campaigns have you found to be most effective?
What really works is to bring the products directly to the consumers. People want marketing in their language — both literally and figuratively. At CCA, we believe it’s so important to embrace our specific population, so in marketing materials we feature our own members to paint a picture of who are members are and what our populations actually look like. We don’t use models or actors for our campaigns; we feature our members. The most beautiful people are often the ones you’re already caring for.
What advice do you have for young entrepreneur?
The pursuit of one’s dreams is very powerful. Never give up on them. Failures are just as important as successes, so consider every opportunity in your life as a chance to learn. There is richness in all life experiences.
