How Tech Is Improving Healthcare Accessibility For The Elderly

Anurag Khosla Jan 10, 2023

India is a growing economic power, with an equally growing population of same scale. It predominantly is a young country, but with an increasing elderly population. India’s elderly population is projected to reach a colossal 158.7 million by 2025 as per the 2008 UNDESA report. Health, wellness and ‘healthy ageing’ has to be an unremitting process which can and has been aiding the elderly, the late elderly and the ‘super agers’ by the technological advancements in the healthcare and health-tech sectors.

Healthcare for the elderly is seeing incremental changes due to the percolating effect of healthcare and health-tech adaptiveness in families. The health-tech adaptability in the Indian elderly populace is distinctively laid on the robust foundation of telecommunication, information technology, and government policies.

As the population ages, deterioration starts in almost all physiological systems followed by physical changes. Multiple co-morbidity conditions amongst elders are a possibility owing to circumstances. The elders weren’t gadget savvy and preferred travelling to the nearest best public healthcare provider due to lack of proximity and facilities.

This added to higher out-of-pocket expenses and, health insurance and its benefits remained untapped for the uninsured. Due to complex familial ties, lack of livelihood, increasing health cost and isolation, the elderly segment in tier 2, 3 cities may not adhere to a healthy lifestyle, capable of improving their overall well-being. In the process, they neglect themselves and, in so doing, increase their need for medical intervention.

The rapid demographic shift is widening the healthcare gaps – which can pose as opportunities to be addressed. Traditionally healthy ageing has been associated with preventive healthcare measures to regularly monitor vitals, doctor consultations to prevent illness and build immunity through nutrition management.

No wonder, healthy aging is evolving into a holistic process, which enhances optimal health conditions by adopting health-related technologies that augment doctor-patient interaction whilst providing care and support at home. Convergent tech driven healthcare, internet/information technology, and tech-enhanced telemedicine is coming to the fore at propagating healthcare in non-conventional ways to the elderly population.

Today, almost every home has at least one mobile phone. The most progressive area of home-focused technologies is “telemedicine”. Where remote connectivity and diagnosis are the two primary points. Telemedicine advancement is promising and comforting, especially due to the services being provided – accessible from the comfort of their own homes. It however, is imperative that medical/healthcare professionals and primary healthcare facilities are a part of the mix. Several tech-wearables have grown beyond their nascent stage, and are gaining adoption by the elderly population.

The younger generation propagation, and peer adoption has brought around this acceptance. Health information and emergency health management is now not limited to web references, doctors are leveraging on e-mail and instant messaging with patients, on-line disease management webinars, and healthcare reels are gaining prominence.

Commonly found at homes today are tech wearable watches, a digital weighing scale, glucometer, oximeters, digital thermometers, blood pressure cuffs to name a few. With the reach of mobile devices and internet connectivity, everyday technologies are embedded into watches and mobile phones that can monitor heart rate, stress levels, oxygen levels, and ovulation cycles to name a few. Today, the elderly populace is gearing up with tech know-how, tech wearables and is taking healthcare seriously.

As much as we need to keep pace and step beyond clinic-centric thinking, the technologies that have made inroads need to be edified and their benefits need to be apprised to the masses. Telehealth is an opportunity to increase healthcare access with doctors and specialists on call, reduce costs with minimal travel to the healthcare center, improve quality of care by educating the family caregivers, and reduce health disparities by reducing barriers to access healthcare before reaching criticality.

Adopting and gaining from ergonomically enhanced tech-healthcare while also justifying any financial burden needs a voice, an outreach to the heterogeneous elderly population.