Tag Archive for: Katy Fike

Kiplinger Report Highlights grandCARE in new report

Technology Helps Seniors Remain at Home

A variety of gadgets help the elderly keep their independence and age in place.

By Sally Abrahms, From Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, March 2015

Most of us want to remain at home as we get older, but safety and health issues and social isolation can interfere with that plan. A growing number of seniors are turning to state-of-the-art digital tools — via smartphones, GPS, voice activation and sensors — that enable them to stay put indefinitely.

……By 2017, experts expect this market to reach $30 billion. “The aging-in-place technology field is exploding,” says gerontologist Katy Fike, who co-founded San Francisco-based Aging 2.0 in 2012 to advise start-ups geared to boomers and seniors…

 System Comp HR11-13Randall Schafer, 61, of Houston, Tex., uses his grandCARE system to Skype with his mother, 90. (She just pushes a button to videochat.) “My mom is in love with our dog, Daisy,” Schafer says. Her “face lights up” when she sees the schnauzer, he says.

Keeping in touch. You might be able to stay in your home, but you can get lonely. Technology can help you feel connected to friends and family — and sometimes even to medical professionals.

With an interactive touch screen from grandCARE Systems (www.grandcare.com, 262-338-6147), you can look at a photo of a grandson’s Halloween getup or a video replay of his baseball home run. You can listen to music, play word games, read the news or surf the Internet. No need to know how to use a computer

skype

Randall Schafer, 61, of Houston, Tex., uses his grandCARE system to Skype with his mother, 90. (She just pushes a button to videochat.) “My mom is in love with our dog, Daisy,” Schafer says. Her “face lights up” when she sees the schnauzer, he says.

An added feature: The system can transmit health data, from glucose and blood pressure to weight and oxygen readings. For example, a blood pressure cuff with a wireless Bluetooth medical device will record and relay the readings to caregivers…

Read the entire article here

grandCARE can be purchased for a loved one Here
Are you a professional care provider, medical provider or housing organization?  Contact grandCARE for volume purchasing options.

GrandCare slated to speak and showcase Toshiba GrandCare at What’s Next Boomer Summit…

Boomer Summit

Thursday, March 13
Manchester Grand Hyatt – San Diego

The What’s Next Boomer Business Summit, hosted by Mary Furlong and Associates, is an annual event that brings together the country’s top businesses and organizations that are focused on the boomer and beyond marketplace. Whether you are just getting started with your boomer business or looking to scale, this is where deals get done.

Featured Sessions:

11:30 am – 12:10 pm
Introducing What’s Next Boomer Summit’s very FIRST “Speed Dealing” networking session.

Organized by Katy Fike, Aging 2.0, Laura Mitchell, GrandCare, and Peter Radsliff of Presto Services Inc.

Are you an entrepreneur/vendor looking for investors, distribution partners and/or media coverage?
Are you an organization looking to tap into external boomer innovation technologies?
Are you an investor looking for deal flow?
Are you a writer looking to for story-worthy innovations?
Are you sick of relying on serendipity to drive your networking at conferences?

The ultimate speed networking session to pair innovators with funding partners, providers with enabling boomer products and writers with fresh and interesting content. This structured “Speed Dealing” will facilitate short and meaningful conversations between mutually interested organizations, looking to establish collaborative relationships. Space is limited! Sign up on-site for this session at the Registration desk! Bring your business cards and elevator pitch!

12:15 pm – 1:25 pm
Lunch With The Experts

1:30-2:10pm
NEW in 2014! BECOME A GROWTH HACKER IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

In this first ever workshop featuring “Reverse Mentors,” participants will learn how to hack their way through brand building, lead generation and customer engagement. With a focus on building brand and PR presence in the digital marketplace, marketers in housing, home care, caregiving and related services will take away hot tips to hack their way to the top of their industry.

MODERATOR: Lisa Price, Executive Director of Marketing, Zillner: LisaP@zillner.com

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems: laura@grandcare.com
Kevin Bracken, CEO, Gymsurfing: kevin@speakeasy.com
Jeh Kazimi, Founder & CEO, Breezie: jeh@breezie.com

More information online at BoomerSummit.com

GrandCare featured on Caring.com

The Digital Caregiver

Being “Wired” Never Felt So Reassuring

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor

One of the most obvious ways advances in digital technology are changing caregiving is in the use of smartphones. And Caring.com user data shows that half of all caregivers own an iPhone and use it for research and connectivity.

Caregivers aren’t just posting pictures of their dogs and kids, though — they’re using the Web, smartphone apps, and other digital services to help them with the often overwhelming tasks of caregiving. And they need that help — in a recent study, a whopping 88 percent of boomer caregivers reported that caregiving had turned out to be much harder than they expected. In a study titled Retirement Care Planning: The Middle-Income Boomer Perspective, 57 percent of the approximately 500 boomers surveyed said caregiving took more emotional strength and 52 percent said it took more time than they’d expected. Caregiving, they said, was also costing them more financially and causing more stress on their health and relationships than they’d anticipated.

Monitoring remotely is getting easier than ever.

Change has also come to the more established area of home monitoring. “New sensor technologies and great design are bringing new capabilities and sensibilities to the markets of home monitoring and Personal Emergency Response devices,” says Fike. GrandCare, a longterm player in the field, now takes advantage of digital innovations to provide a sophisticated interactive interface in addition to more traditional features such as activity monitoring, alerts, and mediation management. Caregivers and their loved ones can use GrandCare’s multimedia communication interface to share photos, chat via video, and even play games in addition to more traditional home care monitoring.

Read the full article at http://www.caring.com/articles/the-digital-caregiver