Changing Aging

Technology is playing a transformational role in aging services and senior housing, and that role will only grow with the age wave.

On January 30th, Kathy Bakkenist, (pictured left) Ecumen’s chief operating officer and senior vice president of strategy and operations, and Ecumen customer Honor Hacker (below left viewing a wireless QuietCare sensor in her apartment), will testify before members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Senate Medical Technology Caucus.

Kathy and Honor will be joined by Mike Magee, M.D., senior fellow in health policy, Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) and commissioner on the National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care; and Darrin Jones, senior business development manager for Intel’s Global Digital Health Group.  Kathy and Darrin also are commissioners for CAST, a collaboration of leading technology companies, aging services companies, research universities and government representatives.

Kathy will discuss the role of technology at Ecumen and how we’re using it to serve a changing marketplace, and Honor will be discussing her role as a consumer of aging services technology.  We see the growing intersection of people and technology as fundamental to improving quality of life, adding years to life, enhancing independence, sharing knowledge across generations and connecting people across the country and world.   To learn more about the role of technology in senior hosuing and aging services, we invite you to download this white paper:  Technology Transforming Senior Housing and Aging Services.

As part of this work, we’ve introduced a variety of technologies in the last three years, including: QuietCare sensor technology; [m]Power cognitive fitness technology; CareTracker, which eliminates paper charting in long-term care settings; and Ivivi SofPulse, which uses pulsed electromagnetic field technology to speed tissue healing.

If you’re going to be in D.C. next week, the Senate briefings will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Room G50.  In addition to taking testimony from the people above, a number of technology companies will be holding demonstrations.