Digital health moves towards suites – why not AgeTech?
Maybe it really is time for the ‘virtual’ AgeTech suite. As HLTH 2024 wrapped up this month, including its plethora of small-scope, standalone AgeTech offerings, look over at the world of Digital Health. A drop in funding precipitated a rethink on the part of some companies – causing them to acquire functionality rather than build it themselves – and saving time and money. Duh. Looking at the 58 companies that made up the AgeTech exhibit hall at HLTH, they are prime candidates as well for combination into ‘virtual’ suites. No integration required, just marketing awareness that in the eyes of the ultimate user, family member or reseller, one offering is complementary to another. And more to the point, that user may need all of them at one point or another, as physical wellbeing, mental capacity, and social connections — will likely evolve over time.
AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative and other hubs should support a second phase. Step one, a startup featured at CES, HLTH, or other innovation hubs displays understanding of the older adult consumer (or service providers). Stage two, AARP, CTA Foundation, and other innovation hubs should help steer these talented firms towards market-aware combinations. AARP and other hubs should help new entrants combine and leverage their skill sets and solution thinking, especially around AI.
Don’t keep reinventing AI features. Many of the HLTH offerings touted AI capability – within the next few years, hopefully we won’t hear about that anymore, as it will be standard practice to incorporate privacy protected machine learning, for example, about the user. Perhaps that insight and its predictive capability will be driven from a profile created at the user’s first encounter. But in the meantime, if startup A has well-tested and useful machine learning capabilities that are making it into the market, startup B with a complementary focus should not have to reinvent that wheel.
Mobility, a category for suite collaboration. Back to the AgeTech 58 companies – imagine that you are a senior living company focused on improving the mobility of residents. You’re seeking pilots of technologies that could make a difference: For example – looking at mobility: Shouldn’t Braze Mobility be viewed along with with Abby by GogoTech and Camino Robotics – depending on the life stage of the older adult? And each of the wheelchair offerings along with Kalogon’s smart wheelchair cushion, a previous AgeTech Collaborative winner? Just saying.
