Companies are rolling out new technology that allows adult children to remotely monitor aspects of their parents’ lives to keep tabs on their health, the New York Times reports.
The products aim to provide enough supervision for elderly individuals so that they can remain in their homes instead of moving to assisted-living facilities or nursing homes.
Examples
One system, called GrandCare, allows family members to place movement sensors throughout a parent’s home. The sensors track the opening of doors, the time at which the parent gets out of bed and movement in certain rooms.
Information is transmitted to the adult children via e-mail, text message and voicemail.
Another program, called MedMinder, functions as a remote monitoring device for medications. The system alerts a patient with flashes and beeps when a pill needs to be taken and alerts relatives via phone or e-mail if medication is not taken at the correct time.
Growth in Market Despite Concerns
Large companies like General Electric and smaller firms like iReminder are developing systems to notify relatives about the daily habits of their older parents.
However, while the central goal of such technology to help parents independently live longer is widely embraced, the systems do raise new issues of control, role-reversal between parent and child, deception and over-intrusion (Stout, New York Times, 7/28).