Maintaining your independence can get more difficult as you age if you have an illness or condition that limits your lifestyle. If you’re like most seniors, all you really want are options that allow you to stay home and enjoy your freedom.
Face-to-face visits are the best way to monitor your health, but now, thanks to advances in technology, it’s easier than ever for you to stay home and live safely with purpose and independence thanks to the virtual systems developed specifically for keeping you in touch with your healthcare team.
This technology means you don’t have to physically go to the doctor’s office for simple questions or diagnoses because your doctor or nurse practitioner can come to you, virtually. You can have a connected, empowered care team supporting you as much or as little as you need and your own personal tool kit of smart-technology options for entertainment, household services, non-invasive video monitoring and systems to prompt you to take medications, check blood pressure or blood sugar levels because we’ve all forgotten something from time-to-time.
There’s a vast amount of resources on senior health that are right at your fingertips, through the internet. Everything from articles to videos are available to you and your family members to share. If you don’t know how to find them your physician team can point you in the right direction.
Dr. Carlson and two expert colleagues in senior care have been selected to speak at the SXSW Technology Conference on the topic of Merging Senior Care and Technology. Senior care and technology leaders across the country recognize the potential technology – combined with the human touch – can serve in bridging the gap between seniors and their care community.
With families living further apart, this technology makes caregiving from a long distance easier on family members. To support you in caring for a loved one at a distance, technology will enable you to take part in the care so you’ll never be left in the dark should an emergency arise.
Be Well MD offers a great place to start. We have a program called Aging at Home that can help you assess your needs and develop a plan for wellness. The goal here is to get you the right support, when you need it, so you can be as independent as possible.
With virtual care technology, long-distance between you and your loved ones will be less of an issue because you will have an entire team at your fingertips helping you with services ranging from support for daily living routines, to managing medications, to making connections within a ‘care community’ to assessing health needs.
Isn’t that the way technology should work? It sure beats walking to your doctor’s office everyday, uphill both ways. Remember however, no matter how much technology can help, you can’t replace cards, letters and visits with a computer.
