Silver Health

GETTING OLDER WELL WITH TECH, HOPES AND ZERO FEARS

September is approaching and we are expecting the second wave of the pandemic. How can we handle the unprecedented situation?

COVID has become a serious challenge for the elderly, and my parents are no exception. We were faced with isolation and difficulty accessing health care, like many others in the world.

Oleg Pun, Vareger's CEO

Partly, that was the reason we at Vareger decided to create our project in healthtech — the Digital Health Solutions Lab, which aims to bring better technology solutions to the healthcare industry.


COVID has become a challenge not only for the elderly, but also for younger generations like the millennials who continue to voice opposition to quarantine restrictions.


It's more about responsibility, I think younger generations should reflect more on how to help to protect the elderly who have built the world in which we now live in.

This elder generation at least built the economy we all use and benefit from, including the complaining millennials, and the elderly are still making their contribution to this economy. Just think about it. The trend of the aging population is clearly visible on the UN map (see below).


There is also another trend that continues — companies whose businesses relate to the aging population have achieved average revenue and earnings growth that has outperformed the global market. The researchers from Oxford Economics and AARP in their report "The Longevity Economy" estimated that by 2032 the volume of the US longevity market will almost double to $ 13.5tr. At the same time, the EU's "silver economy" is expected to reach € 5.7tr by 2025.

What else do we know about the elderly and the economy? First — the health status of older people is far from ideal. Moreover, not all of them are financially secure or educated enough to take advantage of the opportunities, including tech ones. If you think that isolation will solve the problem, you're wrong. To be more precise, it cannot be the one and only solution for all seniors.

It's interesting to see that the market for assistive technologies for disabled and elderly patients, covering solutions including hearing aids, mobility devices, assistive furniture and reading aids, worth around € 19.91m in 2016, is projected to reach a value of €33.3m by 2023.

Appointment at a doctor

United Nations, World Population Prospects 2019

What conclusions do all these facts lead to? That we have to stop complaining, first of all, and then we must come to the realization that we must develop tech opportunities for healthcare that must become more accessible to all older generations.


There are good examples of such philosophy like Bulba ventures, GrandTime, Able Innovations, Novalte, eNable Analytics, or Motitech and No Isolation and CUSH Health.

Since GrandTime is from Estonia and Vareger helped develop it, let me tell you more about it. This is an app that allows you to make video calls with the older generations, while avoiding the problem I mentioned above (where not all seniors can get all these tech stuff).

In GrandTime they state that all unnecessary things are removed in this app, to keep it simple and clear. The caller sees on the screen only the date and time, and a contact list. There are also large fonts and contact photos.

These calls are end-to-end encrypted so they can't be recorded, also there is no chance of elderly people receiving spam calls due to the fact that only people from their contact list can call them. Perhaps this app would be useful to you during the next wave of the pandemic, at least I'm going to use it.

I'm glad that we contributed to the creation of this application and hopefully we will continue to work in the healthtech and development of new products and services that will be helpful for all generations. And I am grateful to three people who inspired me to write this blog.


Laurie Orlov, who runs the blog Ageinplacetech.com, Ko Myung-jin, whose company Silvia Health Inc received investment from Klimventures in early August. One more inspiring person — Keren Etk, who studies AgeTech in her blog The Gerontologist and with whose explanation of what is AgeTech I totally agree with: AgeTech is any type of technology that improves the lives of aging adults.


And this is much more than just healthcare.


Time to tackle the silver economy.


What do you think? Please, share your thoughts.

You can contact me here

LET'S TALK

+372 50 28 489

info@vareger.com

Tallinn, Estonia

Valukoja tn 8/2, 11415

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