I’m a nobody in a medicine role but with a previous career in engineering.<p>I’ve just had a poorly thought out mild epiphany realizing what’s been staring me (and I’m sure everyone else) in the face: There is a huge burden of simple care tasks assisting people with transferring, mobility, dressing, showering, feeding, memory, medications etc.<p>Individually: The carer role is hard, physical, foul, violent, confronting, and worst of all 24/7.<p>Systemically: Half of the health system is clogged full of people admitted for social / care issues rather than medical issues. The population is aging and people are living longer with more severe deficits. There is a huge volume of exploited laborers keeping the system afloat.<p>It’s almost certainly a technical impossibility to solve a fraction of these problems and a large proportion of them likely need socially acceptable and safe human-robot interactions. However, a brilliant / affordable solution to getting grandpa out of bed or wiping his butt or engaging his mind could dramatically improve care timeliness, quality, safety, frequency, etc. and revolutionize parts of industries.<p>If you’re an entrepreneur looking for ripe territory consider literally any problem in aged / disability / nursing care.<p>TL;DR less hype / investment in self driving cars and AI that can solve esoteric BAR exams and more focus on helping grandpa safely stand and walk to the bathroom.<p></rant>
The reality of elder care is that (especially) infirm old folks really need a lot of hard, difficult, unpleasant care that our economic system has made basically impossible for their children and extended families to perform, as would have probably been done in the past. This requirement isn’t going to go away. There will be no cheap, safe, efficient butt-wiping robot, and unmotivated, uninvolved third parties are going to keep doing lousy jobs and getting old folks hurt. Technology is not going to make much of a dent in this one.
Agree. Simple stuff that people really need is missing. I mean really simple. I can't read product labels even with serious myopia and a magnifying lens. Only Trader Joe's makes readable shelf signage. Use-by dates take 30 seconds to even find. And there are tons more things. I made a list ...<p>It's getting longer. Thanks for posting this.
I actually ran a health tech startup in this space within the past decade.<p>It’s basically a no go market. Patients don’t have the funds themselves. Those that do simply hire a dedicated, private staff.<p>Children don’t want to pay for it since they view it as there parent’s expense.<p>Everyone views it as a cost that the healthcare system should cover - even though there isn’t money for it.
> or wiping his butt<p>Slightly weird take: bidets have this field fully covered and the only thing stopping them from being widely used (especially in this domain!) is user resistance to an unfamiliar solution to a very personal problem.<p>We don't need new tech for this, we just need a marketing breakthrough.
You've got it all wrong. Entrepreneurs aren't short on ideas; they're short on ideas that will make them rich. Why/Who's paying for a robot to wipe grandpa's butt when "there's a huge volume of exploited laborers keeping the system afloat"?
Yep. Spend an hour with an elderly person trying to do things like change a password, unsub from a mailing list, connect a Roku, look at a digital photo album, etc. Will blow your mind wide open. We basically need an entire tier of easy internet for the elderly.
I think improvements to the electric-exo-skeleton contraption can keep the elderly mobile for an additional 10 years.. There comes a time when an elderly person cannot take a flight of 2 or 3 step stairs and that's when they stop moving, so if the exoskeleton can get them to the track or a flat area where they can walk, I think it can help tremendously. Additionally, I think those 2 circle zero gravity contraptions might help with circulation. As for the butt wiping, that's a tough one, but only because of the stigma associated with wearing anything on the sphincter, I can see a 12v electric sphincter dilating aparatus being very efficient in controlling bowel movement, but I don't see our childish society accepting them with a straight face.
Architect here. (the building kind.) "Aging in Place" and "Universal Design" are two of the most transformative, difficult, subtle, and important problems facing us today. Other countries are building social structures to address the systemic issues associated with aging.<p>But because of the nature of our healthcare and bureaucratic systems, we have a unique need for interventions in physical conditions - be it small-scale building modifications or assistive technologies. So, especially if you want to innovate making -stuff- I concur wholeheartedly.<p>That said - it looks like the comments until now on this are mostly looking at software-based assistive technologies. Which is ALSO a spot-freaking-on approach.
Not about your point to develop a new project, but is the population aging? I know in certain areas, yes, they are, but a quick look at one of those population pyramids shows places like the US, with a more even population age group, meaning the population as a whole isn't generally getting older.<p>Please enlighten me though, I know almost nothing of this field.
The Japanese have been supposedly working on robots to support their aging population for a couple of decades now. It sure seems to be extremely difficult to make progress in this field (and in robotics in general).<p>Also, as you noted, half the picture are people whose problems are self-inflicted, mostly due to bad lifestyles. Right now, companies profit off bad lifestyles (first by selling them and them by helping to manage consequences). No comercial entity will profit from population keeping itself healthy and balanced, as mostly involves substraction (NOT doing some things) and not addition (doing/buying). It's a awareness and policy issue, and can only be fixed through either campaigns promoting good living, and through policies which enable it (more vacation time for workers, healthier food in stores, less stress due to economic pressures etc.).
We've actually built something in this line and are in the process of open sourcing it in a few weeks. Very small underfunded team, which makes us a little slower.
Inflation and fiscal irresponsibility are central to this issue. It just takes a really selfish generation and a political system that rewards myopic policy to create this sort of gerontocratic inequity. The fix is fiscal responsibility and fostering a culture of personal responsibility rather than a culture of "the government owes it to me" which is pretty obviously not sustainable. The sins of the father... There is no money here, only debts, both monitary and moral.
I think this is some already being looked at in some aging societies. Look at Japan and even China where they have a lack of nursing personnel. They are looking at the humanoid robot hype with a keen eye for supporting people in the future.
And there are likely many other research being done with emphasis on these societies that could show us problems that need solutions.
Where i live in an apartment complex the ground floor retail outlets struggle. They'd make awesome podiatry, physio, optical, aged care, you name it. With increasing trend to care in the home, and with apartment living common for the elderly, these kinds of service tenancy seem like a no brainer: your clientele is all around you.
I'm working on a fitness app, I was mostly thinking about myself but as soon as I looked at best-selling fitness books it was clear that the market was pretty much all seniors. Although it could just be that seniors like books more, I also found similar trends in other media.
The exploited laborers part is true and you never know how the care is going.<p>Someone noticed rashes showing up on an elderly person and installed an in bathroom hidden camera. They were leaving them in the bathroom for hours and exiting/re-entering through the window.
There is no money in this business to make. Someone who didn't think of their old age in advance definitely hasn't got any money now. Sure, you can try to milk the government, but this is not really a sustainable business.
If you think its such a huge obvious problem, i guess the obvious Q is why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and why aren’t <i>you</i> pursuing it? (Assuming you aren’t)
I have been looking at this domain for a while now and thinking about how one might become a "Social Entrepreneur" in this domain. As an example, India has now included all senior citizens over 70 under its Universal Health Coverage umbrella (<a href="https://nha.gov.in/PM-JAY" rel="nofollow">https://nha.gov.in/PM-JAY</a>) and hence the need for these services/organizations have become more pressing. In developed countries with a large aging population the situation is even more dire.<p>The main issues i can think of are;<p>1) Regulations - Govt. mandated laws on access to health records, personal liability etc.<p>2) Insurance - Can these services be charged under govt./private insurance schemes/claims?<p>3) Personnel Training - All employees must be trained in aspects of Nursing and People management, there must be on-call Doctors etc.<p>4) Wellness Centers - Places where the elderly can be brought in for regular companionship and prophylactic exercises.<p>5) Transport - A fleet of vehicles to transport the elderly to and from their homes.<p>6) Supplies - Medicines and everything else as needed.<p>There are three main models that i can think of;<p>a) The "standard" elder care homes which take care of everything for a fee.<p>b) A live-in nurse/maid/caretaker employed through a agency (popular in developing countries) where the person lives with the family taking care of the elder. You pay a monthly fee to the agency and they pay the caretaker's salary after taking their cut.<p>c) A on-demand comprehensive health services company. This can be a non-profit/for-profit organization offering various services (medical/support/companionship etc.) to the elderly who live alone or have nobody to look after them. Services could be offered based on the needs and on a yearly/monthly contracts or as needed per call. Think of it as Uber/Wework for Healthcare. I think this is the need of the hour since there is a huge population above 50 worldwide living alone. Just helping them maintain their health will go a long way towards easing the pressure on the healthcare system leaving the hospitals free to serve those who need it most.<p>To drive the point home, watch this 3-part documentary series on "Living and Dying Alone in Singapore" to get an idea of what awaits many senior citizens - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d499mlwXWfk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d499mlwXWfk</a><p>The organization mentioned in the above documentary and from which we can learn is here - <a href="https://chenghongwelfare.org" rel="nofollow">https://chenghongwelfare.org</a>
Capitalism or things you can buy are only good for things that can be measured but there are lots of things that need to be and are done in the world everyday that cannot be measured especially coming to self care, child care and elderly care
Loneliness is a big one, maybe boomerMeetup.com<p>Day centers for old people used to be very popular<p>But I would say there should be better health lifestyle guidelines for everyone to avoid being incapacitated. How in rural Europe and Africa you still see 80 and 90 year olds still digging land, saw an 100 year old lady, in Africa, still doing accounting for local businesses<p>Maybe is the lack of sleep, unhealthy food, too much coffee, alcohol excess, too many pills... but people should watch out the bill will come
The corrollary of this is you need to hustle now because there is maybe 15 years left before the majority of boomers cease to be customers due to dieing and the next generation is much smaller. You need to capture yoyr market share now then weather 20 years of less exciting before the millenials ramp up demand hard again
In about 5 years the baby boomers will have all hit retirement age. With social security and Medicare there will likely be a significant amount spent on healthcare taking care of this generation.
"There is a huge volume of exploited laborers keeping the system afloat."<p><i>This</i> is the problem that needs fixing.<p>And <i>not</i> with fuckin' robots with butt lasers.