Is digital health for seniors?

It has become a widespread idea that digital health innovation can save the healthcare systems by bringing efficiency and, even better, cut down the ever rising expenses. It is clear that reducing overall expense in the US cannot be achieved without generating more sustainability for the Medicare program that covers every American with more than 65 years old on a mandatory basis. It is a growing population that is known to be less adherent to innovative technologies, thus constituting a real challenge for innovators. Can digital health really adapt to seniors?

Let’s find out.

Medicare spending keeps on rising

Medicare is the US social insurance program covering 54 million Americans aged 65 and older.

According to the Kaiser Foundation, in 2013 Medicare spent 583 billion dollars, mostly with hospital stays, prescription drugs and physicians, and medical services. Spending has been rising every year and is expected to almost double between 2013 and 2023. This is mostly due to the increase of a population that is more likely to have chronic conditions and require special treatments that are more costly than the average: seniors.

Do seniors use technology?

According to Pew Research, in 2013, 59% of the 44,7 million Americans aged +65 reported were using the internet. Once they enter the digital tech world, it becomes part of their lives: 71% of older internet surfers go online on a daily basis.

This doesn’t mean they have the same behavior as other users, nor prefer the same devices to access the internet. In fact, most seniors prefer to own and use a tablet than a smartphone, contrarily to the rest of the population: 27% of older adults own a tablet, but only 18% have a smartphone in the US.

Moreover, we can’t accuse the seniors of not catching up with the rest: internet use among this population has been increasing at the same rate as other adults’, as the graphic shows.

How to build digital tech for seniors?

The senior population, like any other segment, not only can but also want to use digital technology. According to Accenture’s Modern Healthcare report, 67% of seniors want to access healthcare services from home. The particularity is that they need to have specific tech that adapts to their expectations, behavior and condition. This sets an important challenge for entrepreneurs and innovators in terms of design, usability and user experience (UX). If seniors odd to use digital tech, it needs to be their own tech, built specifically for them, from product engineering to customer support. Also, they may need some help: according to the US Pew Internet Research Center, 77% of elderly need some kind of support when setting up a new device.

Ollie Campbell, design specialist and founder of Navy Design provides us a few clues on how to adapt tech devices for elderly. His advices, published by Smashing Magazine, include:

• Introduce product features gradually over time to prevent cognitive overload.
• Avoid splitting tasks across multiple screens if they require memory of previous actions.
• During longer tasks, give clear feedback on progress and reminders of goals.
• Provide reminders and alerts as cues for habitual actions.
• Avoid dividing users’ attention between multiple tasks or parts of the screen.
• Enable connection with a smaller, more important group of people (not a big, undifferentiated social network).

What about digital health?

When it comes to health, seniors have specific preferences: if only 25% consult their Electronic Health Records, 60% use patient forums such as PatientsLikeMe, which gives us a crucial clue about the importance of creating communities and sharing experiences. Also, and according to Accenture’s report, 60% are willing to use wearable devices and to monitor their vital signs. But from intention to action there is a long way, and there is still no mass-adoption of digital health tool by the population that would probably need it the most.

Fact is, technology still needs to adapt to seniors, and entrepreneurs still have a lot to learn in order to understand the behaviours and needs of this specific segment. By 2030, seniors odd to represent 19% of the US population: 98 million people. If the sustainability of the American public health system is to be honored, there is no choice but to unite efforts between innovators and Medicare to boost digital health technologies for elderly. And entrepreneurs have good reasons to be motivated: not only will seniors represent a huge market, as in the future they will be able to accept and use digital devices since they adapted to the digital tech revolution while in their 40s and 50s.The opportunity is there, and so are the motivations. There are no excuses: seniors must be part of the digital health revolution.

Do you know any digital technology that changed a senior’s life? Share it with us

Photo credits: digitaltrends.com